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skull_phil · Tattoo lover Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 6

Can anyone help with any history info on Stoney St Clair.

I have a few bits & bobs but need as much as possible!!!

Thanks in advance

****

robertz · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject:

Stoney St. Clair developed severe arthritis at age four that stunted his growth and confined him to a wheelchair. At age 15, he joined the circus as a sword-swallower. At 16, he discovered the "Oldest Art in the World" - tattooing - and practiced the art with travelling carnivals and circuses for the next 50 years. Stoney Knows How features extensive interviews with St. Clair, who shares his determination to overcome his extreme disability in order to help spiritually heal himself and others with his art. St. Clair also regales viewers with bizarre stories about the circus animals and performers with whom he shared his life on the road.

source: movies.nytimes.com/movie/46966/Stoney-Knows-How/overview

Leonard L. St. Clair (1912-1980), nicknamed "Stoney", was a circus performer and tattoo artist born in West Virginia. His father had been a coal miner since he quit school at age 14. As a child, Stoney was crippled by rheumatic fever and confined to a wheelchair. His father used up the family savings, eventually losing their home, to keep Stoney in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

In the hospital, Stoney drew incessantly. Most of what he drew were scenes of the circus, animals, performers, circus wagons. He was inspired by an uncle in the circus and he was determined to follow in his footsteps, despite the few prospects a crippled boy had in that business. A German woman named Gretchen took Stoney under her wing and taught him the secrets of her act...sword swallowing.

Three square meals a day and $75 a week - Stoney was in heaven. Then one day when the circus was in Norfolk, VA, some of his circus colleagues took him to a tattoo parlor. Stoney refused to get a tattoo, but when he saw the tattoo artist at work, he was convinced he could do the same thing, and better. Over the next several days, Stoney befriended the artist and watched him work. When the circus left town, the artist gave him some tattoo equipment and Stoney set up shop behind the elephant barn.

The circus wintered in Tampa, FL for years. Around 1944, Stoney called it quits and settled in the city, opening a tattoo parlor on Fortune St. He was a fixture in Tampa for decades, and many older Tampans still bear his work. When, in 1970, our state legislature essentially outlawed tattooing by making it illegal for anyone except a doctor, Stoney set off for New Orleans, LA, and then Columbus, OH, where he died. A documentary film and book, called Stoney Knows How, records his life and his work.

source: everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=942826

sorri if some of this information has been repeated twice, in this post, i got the information off different websites...

will keep trying to luk for more info on him tho, he was an amazing tattooist... R.I.P Stoney

skull_phil · Tattoo lover Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 6

Thanks,
Thats a mega help!!!

True he was amazing,

RIP Stoney.

Phil

mommabird · Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 2:49 pm Post subject:

robertz - that was very interesting! Now I'm curious and will be looking for the documentary film!

thanks!

robertz · Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject: Re: awsome!

no problem skull_phil, and mommabird...

the documentary film is not on youtube, but if you go on and type in Stoney Knows How, in the search bar on youtube, it brings up a cuple of short clips, of him tattooing...

he was an amazing tattooist, i take my hat off to him, R.I.P Stoney...

mommabird · Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:58 pm Post subject:

robertz,

I checked out the clips on YouTube and now I'm even more interested in finding the whole video. Thanks!

Very Happy

MeganStClair · Tattoo lover Joined: 13 Feb 2008 Posts: 1

Hey, I am Stoney St. Clair's great neice, what kind of information are you looking for? A have tattoos done from Stoney's flash art. And a few pictures and paintings of his. I am still in the process of getting a hold of some more stuff from more of my family.

robertz · Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject:

what tattoos have you got done by him? if you dont mind me asking that is, he was a great tattooist, i take my hat off to him, R.I.P stoney...

tramick1 · Tattoo lover Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 9

Wow I checked out Stoney You Tube clip and I loved it. I'll have to see if I can find more.
Thanks for the info.

Jack Sha'ir · Tattoo lover Joined: 08 Oct 2008 Posts: 1

Can anyone point me in the direction of Stoney St. Clair's flash other than in the book by Alan Govenar? I am a grad student in special education as well as a tattoo enthusiast and have a profound respect for Stoney as well as his art. I am hoping to get one of his pin-up girls. I found a postcard of his pin-up girls at the Tattoo Archive but I don't think they are large enough to create a viable tattoo from.