Paul Rogers:

The Grandfather of Tattooing
Paul Rogers was born on September 9, 1905, in a log cabin in the woods of Couches Creek, North Carolina. He was the third of five children born to Belva and David Rogers. When Paul was 5 years old, his father died and two years later, when he was 7, he went to live with his grandfather who lived just a few miles away. He spent much of his childhood moving from one cotton town to the next, as the family sought employment in the hard conditions of the cotton mills. His childhood memories were full of stories recalling both hard work and fun.
In 1926 at age 21, Paul got his first tattoo from Chet Cain, a circus/carnival tattooist who was working with the John Robinson Circus. Paul later said his first tattoo changed his life. Two years later he mail-ordered his first machine from E.J. Miller of Norfolk, VA, and started his life long career as a tattooist. Paul quickly ran out of new customers in his small cotton mill town and went on the road to make a living as a professional tattooist.

Paul joined the John T. Rea Happy Land Show and worked in the sideshow. This mud show traveled up and down the eastern seaboard, staying but a few days in each town before moving along. As well as learning how to tattoo, Rogers trained hard in acrobatics. He was also very careful with his body. Paul never smoked, drank coffee or touched any alcohol. As the resident tattooist Paul got more than he bargained for when he met his future wife Helen on that sideshow platform. Helen, the bosses daughter, was a Hawaiian dancer and snake handler!

During the winter months the carnival folks had to come off the road. For Paul, that meant that he was back working in the cotton mills trying to keep the bills paid. This cycle went on until 1940s when Paul got an opportunity to tattoo full time in Charleston, South Carolina with F.A. Myers. He jumped at this chance and never looked back.

In 1942, Rogers set up his first tattoo shop in Charleston, South Carolina. In the early 1940s Paul's tattooing caught the eye of August "Cap" Coleman in Norfolk, Virginia. At this time Coleman was considered to be one of the best tattooists in North America. In 1945 he began a five years association with Cap Coleman. Coleman was already a legend in the tattoo world and Paul said it was like a dream come true to be invited to work with Coleman. Paul was thrilled at the opportunity to work with one of the greats and he worked with Coleman from 1945 to 1950, when the city fathers shut down tattooing. It was then that he decided to move to Jacksonville, North Carolina.
It was while working in Jacksonville that Rogers met Huck Spaulding. They both shared a shop and giving birth to the now famous “Spaulding and Rogers”, Known worldwide as a tattoo supply business. Rogers only worked in the supply business for two years. He continued tattooing with Spaulding for four years, but then in 1963, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida. In 1970, Rogers and his wife, bought a mobile home and it was there that Rogers focused on building his world class tattoo machines He built a portable 12-by-12-foot tin shack that he affectionately referred to as “the Iron Factory“. The term of "irons" for tattoo machines comes from Paul Rogers, who first coined the word.

He became the "Tattoo Mecca", the pilgrammage for the burgeoning new tattoo generation of the late 70s and early 80s. Paul thrived as the Grandfather of this new wave of tattooists and he loved to share and spend time with all of his new friends. Paul Rogers truly endeared himself to all who came to him as they surely did to him as well.

In 1988, when Rogers was working on his autobiography, he had a stroke, ironically, on the 60th anniversary of the day he began tattooing. He died two years later in a nursing home at age 84.

As Paul was revered by the new generation of tattoo artists and it truly shows the mark he made by the enduring art, commentary and documentation continues to inspire artists old and new. His story as an artist and as gentleman, husband of the love of his life and someone all can look up to, emulate and admire. Truly Paul was a product of the love of his art and his life.

Pauls' Legacy is carried on by Amy Rogers Blau and his tattoo family has exhalted his memory with books, Franklin Paul Rogers 'the Father of American Tattooing' by Doc Don Lucas and CW Eldridge and with art and machine collections and remembrances documented by the many he touched.

In 1993, C.W. Eldridge, Alan Govenar, D. E. Hardy, and Henk Schiffmacher formed a nonprofit corporation, The Paul Rogers Tattoo Research Center, where they serve on the Board of Directors. Their primary goal is to preserve tattoo history. To this end, the PRTRC works with other tattoo organizations and individuals worldwide to document and promote tattoo history and is working toward establishing a national landmark for the art of tattooing.