John O’Reilly: The Tattooed Irishman
Researched & Written by Carmen Forquer Nyssen
Not all that long ago, the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts digitized an extraordinary scrapbook filled with assorted rare photos and ephemera relating to 1800s dime museum attractions. One particular photo of a tattooed man labeled “Prof. Riley” sparked much excitement within the tattoo history crowd. As so few photos of renowned New York Bowery tattooer Samuel O’Reilly have been seen to date, many believed the man in the photo might be him. My thoughts leaned in a different direction.
Throughout my years of researching Samuel O’Reilly and his family, I had repeatedly come across references for a tattooed dime show performer named John O’Reilly. I was hopeful that eventually I would find adequate evidence to prove that the man depicted in the photo and Samuel O’Reilly’s brother of the same name were a match. Once I saw the publicized image posted by the American Antiquarian Society on social media, it only took a little more digging and tying pieces together to confirm my previous study of the O’Reilly history.
Here’s what I uncovered in accompaniment to my body of research:
John O’Reilly’s Tattoos
In an 1888 New Rochelle newspaper interview, Sam O’Reilly claimed he had only tattooed female attractions prior to that time. As it turns out, there was at least one “tattooed man” under his belt by then—his younger brother John.
While John O’Reilly received far less publicity than his famous tattoo artist brother, I found a key newspaper article that—along with the scrapbook image—helped unlock the mystery.
An informative June 8, 1890 New York Press interview, not only infers that Samuel was the artist behind John O’Reilly’s tattoo work, but also outlines the tattoo designs in some detail.
According to the report, “O’Reilly,” a tattooed man “…decorated by his brother who makes a specialty of such work…,” “went in for tattooing as a matter of experiment;” he said he was the only living man “done in brown ink.” On his legs, he wore “wonderful landscapes” and “dancing Nautch girls,” and on the rest of his body, the following tattoos:
—
Most of the designs described in the article don’t appear in the torso-shot photo of John.
But, on examination of his chest tattoos, the American eagle is visible.
O’Reilly Tattooed Man
John O’Reilly didn’t grace the dime show or tattoo scene as long as his brother. Often billed as the “Tattooed Irishman,” he exhibited in Bowery dime museums and on the traveling circuit for a few years starting in the late 1880s.
One of the earliest mentions of him as a tattooed attraction appears in a February 22, 1887 Brooklyn Daily Eagle article describing his performance at a Temperance Hall boxing match:
“….John Riley, a tattooed man, then exhibited himself as showing how hideous he could be made by barbarious practices…”
From that date through 1892, he’s intermittently billed in dime museum advertisements in various cities as:
“The Tattooed Irishman,” Prof. or John Riley, Reilly, O’Reilly, et cetera.
O’Reilly Brothers Tattoo Mystery
The fact that Samuel O’Reilly’s brother was a tattooed attraction is a surprise in itself, but further research reveals an altogether more intriguing possibility. John O’Reilly’s billing in a January 10, 1892 New York Sun advertisement states he was among one of his brother’s first electrically tattooed men, at least in part.
“In the curio department at Worth’s museum….Riley, “electrical tattooed” man…”
From my patent application research, it’s known that Samuel O’Reilly had commenced tinkering with electric tattoo machines by 1889 and electrically tattooed several men before his famous 1891 patent was in place. Although the “electric tattooing” on John’s body might have simply referred to later applied tattoo work, it’s possible that Samuel O’Reilly’s trials with electric machines began a bit earlier.
For more of Carmen Forquer Nyssen’s hard-earned research about Samuel F. O’Reilly’s experimentation and development of electrical tattooing, see Buzzworthy Tattoo History articles:
Tattooed by O’Reilly: The First Electrically Tattooed Attractions
Saloon Tattoo Shops of New York City’s 4th Ward
Early Tinkerers of Electric Tattooing
Birth of the Tattoo Trade: New York Bowery
Published December 8, 2015 @ 19:04:03
Questions or Comments? Email:
carmennyssen@buzzworthytattoo.com
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