“The Tattooist”

ONE OF NORMAN ROCKWELL'S best known and most humorous wartime cover paintings. The joke is an obvious one—the kind you might expect to find furnishing the basis for a one-panel newspaper cartoon—but Rockwell gives the two figures enough personality to make this more than just a simple sight gag. The sailor (modeled by Rockwell's friend and fellow illustrator, Mead Schaeffer) is a bruiser of a man, with a face that has been through naval battles, storms at sea and barroom brawls from San Diego to Singapore.

He is rather like the kind of character that was played by Wallace Beery in some of the war movies of the period. His jacket, draped over his knees, gives us a couple of clues to his personal attributes. The ribbons pinned there attest to his bravery. The comb projecting from a pocket hint that he may not be totally free of vanity. It is amusing to picture this battered sea dog courting Sadie, Rosetta, Ming Fu, Mimi, Olga, Sing Lee, and Betty.

 Rockwell has always enjoyed portraying artists at work, and he treats the tattooist with no less respect than he would any other artist. His calling may not be an exalted one, but Rockwell shows him as a model of concentration, a craftsman proud of his skill, busy on his living canvas.