Mae Vandermark came to New York in 1924 to work as a stenographer, not to join a circus.[1] At Coney Island she saw a butterfly tattoo, sat down in a boardwalk shop, and left with a butterfly on each shoulder.[1] A tattooed performer she met there — named Victoria James, “Miss Pictoria,” in one account and “Lotta Pictoria” in another — persuaded her to go further and took her to Charlie Wagner.[1][2] Wagner tattooed a full suit. As “Miss Artorio” she went on to the Ringling show. This page is short because the record is short, and it flags the places where even that record splits.
Quick facts
- Born
- Pennsylvania; later unconfirmed accounts give the name Ada Mae Vandermark Patton and a Scranton birth, possibly 1907
- Died
- Not established in the sources used here
- Known as
- Mae Vandermark; “Miss Artorio”
- Arrived
- New York, 1924, to work as a stenographer
- Tattooed by
- A Coney Island boardwalk shop (two butterflies), then Charlie Wagner, over about ten months
- Suit price
- $130 in a 1927 report cited by Wikipedia; $150 in a later BME entry — a conflict
From a stenographer’s desk to 11 Chatham Square
Later unconfirmed accounts give her the fuller name Ada Mae Vandermark Patton and a Scranton, Pennsylvania, birth, possibly in 1907.[3] The Tattoo Archive, the source used most carefully here, says only that she was Pennsylvania-born and came to New York as a stenographer in 1924.[1] We follow that slimmer version and leave the rest as a lead.
The Coney Island butterflies were a first, casual sitting. The professional suit was Wagner’s, done over about ten months.[1] A 1927 report, cited by Wikipedia, put the price at $130.[2] BME later gives $150.[3] Both figures are recorded; neither has been checked against a receipt.
The friend who made the introduction is named two ways. The Tattoo Archive calls her Victoria James, “Miss Pictoria.”[1] A 1927 Milwaukee Sentinel piece, as cited on Wikipedia, calls her “Lotta Pictoria.”[2] It is likely the same woman under two memories of a stage name, but the pages do not quite match, and we do not force them to.
Miss Artorio
Under the name Miss Artorio she worked Coney Island shows and then went on to Ringling in the late 1920s.[1] In 1931, in a remark later quoted on Wikipedia, she said, “I love Art…and that’s true, too—up to a certain point…I mean, I like to eat regular.”[2] The line is one of the few we have in her own voice, and it is as practical as Millie Hull’s joke about “anemia of the bankroll.”
A second portrait in our archive, of a seated woman in a tiara with bobbed dark hair and three-quarter tattooed sleeves, was supplied as Mae Vandermark. The face and the work are consistent with the seated archive photograph, which itself carries a studio stamp in some copies, but no captioned published print has been found to confirm the tiara sitting. It appears in the gallery as a probable likeness, not as a settled one.
Her later life, and her death, are not established in the sources used here. What is established is the path: a typist, two boardwalk butterflies, a Bowery tattooer, and a circus name.
NYC Tattoo Shop is at 141 Canal St, a short walk from where Wagner tattooed her, and a subway ride from the Coney Island boardwalk where the first two butterflies were done. The history here belongs to New York. We’re proud to work nearby.
Photo gallery
Both images are from the NYC Tattoo Shop History Digital Archive. The seated portrait is used as the documented likeness. The tiara portrait was supplied as Mae Vandermark; the identification is probable, based on a comparison of face, hair and three-quarter sleeves with the archive photograph, but it has not been confirmed by a captioned published copy.
