Christian Warlich (5 January 1891 – 27 February 1964) was a

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

based tattooist who professionalised tattooing in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He supposedly was the first one to use an electric

tattoo machine A tattoo machine (colloquially referred to as a tattoo gun) is a hand-held device generally used to create a tattoo, a permanent marking of the skin with indelible ink. Modern tattoo machines use electromagnetic coils to move an armature bar up an ...

in Germany.

Biographical and career information

Warlich was born and raised in Hannover-Linden. He left his parental home at the age of 14, went to

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

and reportedly became a

boilermaker A boilermaker is a Tradesman, tradesperson who Metal fabrication, fabricates steels, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bure ...

. He went to sea and might have had contact with tattooists in the US. He got married in 1914 in Hamburg and opened a pub at Kieler Straße 44 (today Clemens-Schultz-Straße) around 1919. There was a separate area where he tattooed. His grandson and Theodor Vetter, a close friend of the family, worked as a business tout for Warlich. According to his own account Warlich tattooed „everything the male body should express ��politics, eroticism, athleticism, aesthetics, religion, in all colours, at every location.“ Though, in the context of a legal dispute about a face tattoo which was done by a competitor, Warlich claimed „a decent tattooer does not tattoo a face.“ In over 40 years of working as a tattooist he had more than 50.000 customers, also Prince Axel and Prince Viggo from the Danish Royal family. Warlich died at work in his pub. After Warlich's death Theodor Vetter (Tattoo Theo) took care of a part of the estate, the second part, including the famous flash book (Vorlagealbum) and photos, was sold to the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte in 1965. So it was possible to show Warlich's flash book in the exhibit „Wohin mit der Stadt“ in 2013. The Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte is planning to re-publish the Vorlagealbum, which was previously brought out by Stephan Oettermann. In 1981, he published the album with an accompanying text in cooperation with the museum. Although, over the next ten years, three editions of the volume were published, it is no longer available today. Oettermann's publication was a groundbreaking and pioneering work. However, the low reproduction quality of the images do not entirely do justice to Warlich's work. The quality of the original designs deviates strikingly from that of the reproductions. Therefore, a completely new and appropriate edition is planned.

Research project

The Hamburg-based art historian

Ole Wittmann Ole Wittmann (born 31 August 1977) is a German art historian, curator and publisher. He is specialized in the role of tattooing in art. His research on the German tattoo history of the late 19th and 20th century is considered pioneering. He has w ...

was the head of the research project „Der Nachlass des Hamburger Tätowierers Christian Warlich (1891–1964)“ – also known as �
Nachlass Warlich
�� – which is carried out in cooperation with the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte. Wittmann is a postdoc scholarship holder of the Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture (Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur). The exhibition ''Tattoo Legends. Christian Warlich in St Pauli'' was on display in the Museum of Hamburg History from 27 November 2019. It was a large-scale show about Warlich, who became known as the ‘King of Tattooists’ and is considered one of the most important tattooists of the 20th century. On 13 March 2020 the museum was suddenly closed to visitors due to the COVID 19 pandemic. On March 20 the exhibition was the only current international special exhibition that could b
visited online
A show that had already been declared dead was reanimated only a few days after the sudden lockdown and there was active participation of a community in the topic of tattoo history. In addition, the online tour allowed virtual excursions and curatorial tours, among others for a seminar at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel. The virtual tour was awarded gold at the Annual Multimedia Award 2021 in the category ‘Events on the Internet’. MHG 2020 Warlich 01.jpg MHG 2020 Warlich 02.jpg MHG 2020 Warlich 03.jpg MHG 2020 Warlich Finke Dix 01.jpg Warlich MHG 2020 Manfred Kohrs.jpg MHG 2020 Warlich Vetter 01.jpg Ceramic artist Antony Natsoulas created this artwork for the special exhibition "Tattoo Legends. Christian Warlich at St. Pauli"; the artwork was glazed by Britton McFetridge.

References

External links

* Ross Howerton
Flash from the Past: The King of Tattoos, Christian Warlich

ndr.de, german TV: ''Auf den Spuren von Christian Warlich''
(German)
Christian Warlich: On TV first time since 1950s. NDR - DAS! - 26 Oct. 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warlich, Christian 1891 births Artists from Hamburg German tattoo artists 1964 deaths Innkeepers Male tattoo artists

Biographical and career information

Research project

See also

Selected bibliography

References

External links