i was at work when i wrote this today so i forgot a few things......some interesting things were Tex would not let anything with the # 13 in his shop. So there was no #13 flash...no # 13 drawer,or set up etc....Jennie did a # 13 sheet upon Texs death in 1992...it is a copy of a crowe sheet..the one with the rebel flag draped reaper..i bought it from her because i thought that was too cool.

also the bathrooms used to say "Men" and "Ann"(for the womens) I looked through their logbooks and like on one day it was panther, panther, Panther, eagle,devil with wings, dagger, panther , eagle, eagle, eagle, eagle it was just endless.

people that see them at conventions may see their coleman machines and othr stuff they have. One of the frames they had I knew was a coleman but people had misidentified it as a Zies victory. Actually paul rogers had made Rollo a liner out of one of these frames and Paul told Mike it was a Coleman.I think perhaps Huck made the frames for coleman,because huck was close with coleman and stayed close until coleman drown.In fact there is a liteweight Coleman rebuilt for huck up at the Spaulding compound,I think we have a tendency to think of Coleman in the 20s 30s and 40s but he was around much later than that. though they closed him down in 1950 or 51. He went to work after a short retirement at the peaces shop in portsmouth. So ledann who remembers Coleman when he was a kid is one of the last living links to Coleman. Huck Spaulding is still alive but in no condition to talk anymore.

As sailor jerry said in a letter to ed hardy if you wanted a coleman tattoo huck was the one you should go to...(not to get too sidetracked but Huck got a bad rap because of how open he was selling tattoo stuff but he pales in comparison with what people are doing today)

most of the flash that was colemans that we see today has huck or pauls writing on the back that sez "this is colemans"...very few sheets were signed...i dont think he tripped on it too much as he made flash to sell designs not as fine art.we saw quite a few sheets Coleamn did while he worked at the peaces...(a few sheets can be bought if you contact me)

We dug through boxes of acetates,alot celluloid, alot of Colemans grimshaws etc...It was amazing...I remeber thinking about when i got my first tattoo down at the pike 30 years ago the designs were very similar to the ones jennie was drawing with the magnifying glass and scott and i both said we would have picked from them years ago. Anyway just an added note this christmas eve

cooooool stuff as usual shane, many thanks for sharing.

Good write and it sounds like good times Shane.

Just got off the phone with LeDan to let him know about the post and he's callin Jennie to have her check it out. The pic's are great and Scott is lookin better than ever, time has been good to him.

Just to correct a couple things though, the shop Jennie is workin from is Allegiance Ink Tattoo and not alliance and the old shop location was occupied just 4 months short of 50 years instead of 40.

The interview will be great! So much history! Tex, Ann and the kids were everywhere, shops(plural) in Portsmouth, even a time in Chicago when the likes of Sparrow and Thomas were there, just an amazing history.

When I hit my 30th anniversary with Hawk's Tattoos it was the Peace Families 75th in 2009 so I celebrated by flyin down to Georgia to see and visit as my own reward, gotta show respect to the Gods of tattooing and it was bountiful.

Thanks for the pic's and can't wait to read the interview, guaranteed to be a good one.

Awesome! I love this forum mostly for the history lessons, and gallery. Great read and reminder that tattooing is so much a part of American history and culture.

At least Electric tattooing.

Thanks Shane

Man, I met Ledann in Bakersfield with their son. Timmy Tatts called me up to their hotel room. I walked into a pile of original Eddie Peace Flash......Old hinged brass tubes, a pile of envelope art from Doc Webb to Eddie...................Machines like you wouldn't believe. Everything was in plastic, I found a beautiful Paul Rogers on Waters 6 frame, with a strut bar welded on......double wrapped green fish tape coils.........I wish I had the loot. Well Ledann is one of the coolest cat's I have ever met. We all had dinner and connected our booths at the show. I got a Wagner frame, Two sheets of Eddie Peace flash, and traded Ledanns son his knuckles for a flash book. Great family. The photo album was killer. Eddie Peace was in a band called the "Wandering Playboys".