Some stories are written in books, others in TV shows and movies, but sometimes the most meaningful stories to us are etched into our flesh, written or drawn with needle and ink. Once, tattoos were marks of the outcast, the judged, and the feared. But over the past century, the world has changed. What was once taboo became art, identity, and history worn on the skin.
Tattoos don't have to tell a story of rebellion. They can be a sign of resilience. On Galveston Island, where tragedy and survival are etched into the land itself, JT Clarke and Bertha Ritchie, reunited in the wake of tragedy and propelled by love and a dream, embarked on a journey across the world, leaving their mark in ink and history.
In the late 19th century, a wave of immigrants arrived on the shores of Galveston, Texas, seeking opportunity and a fresh start. Among the more than 2 million English immigrants who came to the United States in the 1880s were John Thomas Clarke and Anna Bertha Ritchie.
JT Clarke was born into a working-class family in Bedale, England, in 1871, and his family struggled to find stable employment. Like many others in search of better opportunities, the men of his family immigrated to Galveston via New Orleans in 1884. The Clarke men arrived in a Galveston rich with immigrants and burgeoning industries, as Galveston was one of the richest cities per capita and one of the most populous cities in Texas at the time.
That same year, Anna Bertha Ritchie, who preferred being called Bertha, arrived in Galveston with her mother and sisters after the tragic loss of their father. Born in 1876 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Bertha settled with her family at 601 Broadway, just blocks from the Gulf of Mexico.
Although JT and Bertha were five years apart, the two likely crossed paths while growing up on Galveston Island. Galveston's population hovered just over 31,000 in 1890—a large city at the time, but more than 20,000 fewer residents than today.
JT and Bertha's upbringings couldn't have been more different. A newspaper article from February 1893 records that JT Clarke was fined $5 for disorderly conduct. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $175 today.
While Bertha flirted with Galveston's high society, JT enlisted in the 1st Texas Infantry in 1898, serving during the Spanish-American War. For JT, a poor English immigrant growing up in Galveston, his military service was marked by disciplinary issues. After being found drunk and disorderly and going AWOL a few times, he was sent to sea to patrol Cuba. After contracting malaria, he was transferred back to Galveston and placed on sick leave.
At the same time, in 1898, Bertha married one of the consuls for Great Britain. Galveston was a major shipping hub in the 1890s, and many foreign nations had consulate offices in Galveston to oversee maritime trade. For Bertha, marrying a consul was a big deal. She lived down the street from her family home, and a short time later, the couple had a baby boy.
Bertha's husband and JT Clarke were close friends. Bertha raised her little boy a few blocks away from the beach on Galveston Island, enjoying island life much like young families do today.
JT Clarke, still in the military, was nearly court-martialed. Fortunately for JT, his court-martial papers received inconsistent verification. He could have faced a dishonorable discharge and jail time but slipped through the cracks of missing paperwork.
After a normal discharge from the military, he lived with his father at 2002 Post Office Street and worked odd jobs, one of them listed as a birdkeeper, probably meaning he tended chickens with his father.
In May 1900, he married a woman named Florence Kelly, a widow with two young daughters. Throughout the summer of 1900, JT struggled with settling into married life on the island and taking on two stepchildren.
In June, he took a job transporting horses from New Orleans to South Africa, where, as an Englishman, he joined the British Armed Forces fighting in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Unwittingly, JT Clarke left Galveston just in time to miss the deadliest natural disaster in American history, ironically passing very near where Atlantic hurricanes form off the coast of Africa. JT arrived in Cape Town on August 10, 1900, and began his service in an all-volunteer British colonial unit alongside many other English Texans.
Meanwhile, back on Galveston Island, as the summer was winding down, Bertha, her husband, and her child were living island life under the hot Texas sun. There was no way Bertha could have known that her life was about to change forever.
By 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 8, the house where Bertha's four sisters lived was completely destroyed by the 1900 Storm. All of Bertha's sisters and JT Clarke's wife and stepdaughters, along with thousands of other Galvestonians, met their end during the storm.
Bertha was at home with her maid and infant son while her husband was at the consul's office downtown. As the floodwaters rose and the clatter of wind-driven debris grew louder against the walls of the home, Bertha's maid offered to take the baby. Bertha refused and fled through the floodwaters with her son in the middle of the storm.
Tragically, in a story all too common during the 1900 Storm, the boy was washed from Bertha's arms and swept into the murky floodwaters, never to be seen again.
Bertha, now simply trying to survive, clung to floating wreckage for hours. The debris ripped her clothes away, and when it seemed like all was lost, she felt a tug on her long hair and was pulled from the floodwaters to safety.
Bertha found refuge dressed only in her corset, with her long hair having become her lifesaver. In only a matter of hours, she had lost her only son, all of her sisters, and her home. Miraculously, her husband survived the storm.
As thousands of lives were lost on Galveston Island, more than 8,000 miles away in South Africa, JT Clarke was in his own fight for survival. South African newspapers printed news of the hurricane without details about the missing or dead, and letters traveling between South Africa and Texas would have taken weeks.
JT had only been married for four months and may not have known the fate of his new family for a very long time. His father and brother survived the storm, but his wife and stepdaughters were tragically killed. Upon finally learning the news, JT found no pressing reason to return to Galveston.
He continued fighting in the Boer Wars. While figuring out what he would do next in life, JT, no stranger to the rough and rowdy, began tattooing other soldiers.
Like many British soldiers during the Boer War, JT Clarke saw many tattoos during his service. It was common for commanders to encourage officers in the British Army to be tattooed with their regimental crest, as it was thought to encourage morale. Tattoos were also used to identify casualties.
Tattoo artists reportedly amassed tidy sums tattooing their fellow soldiers, and JT Clarke proved particularly adept at the early turn-of-the-century artistry of tattooing.
After being discharged from the British Army—and a few tropical diseases and parasites later—JT Clarke returned from Cape Town to Galveston in 1903. He found Galveston Island almost unrecognizable and began living with his father and brothers after the storm.
Bertha and her husband had another son but had lost everything, including their investments, in the 1900 Storm. Sometime between the birth of their son and JT Clarke's return in 1903, Bertha's husband died, and we are still researching to find out what took his life.
Regardless of how he died, Bertha was now widowed with a two-year-old child, no financial prospects, and no surviving family to support her. She and her son lived in a small rented room.
JT Clarke did not know his friend Bertha's husband had died. When JT came to call on his old friend, he found Bertha cooking milk pudding because it was all she could afford.
It didn't take long for JT and Bertha to reconnect and commiserate over their mutual loss. They began spending more time together while working odd jobs. They had crossed paths with each other for years, and with both of their spouses now deceased, JT proposed marriage.
JT was no high-society British consul. He was a rough-and-rowdy, tattooed soldier. But he did have big plans.
While fighting in South Africa, he had dreamed up a plan to start a tattoo parlor in Cape Town, and he explained his plans to Bertha. She was all in on his business plan.
By the end of 1903, JT Clarke had begun honing his skills to become a professional tattoo artist on Galveston Island, tattooing anyone willing to sit for the needle. The couple married in Galveston, and by the summer of 1904, JT, Bertha, and Bertha's son set sail for Cape Town.
South Africa offered a fresh start from the hardship they had experienced. It took a couple of years, but JT Clarke opened tattoo shops in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg and became one of the most popular tattoo artists on the African continent.
In one advertisement, he called himself the only tattooing artist in Johannesburg, and he dubbed himself "Professor JT Clarke."
Tattoo artists were sometimes called "professors" to signify their high level of skill and expertise, and JT Clarke was a living embodiment of the title.
JT's tattoo shops were often located in the heart of the business district in each city. Many of the shops also sold tobacco and bottled drinks. This starkly contrasted with tattoo shops of the era that were often found in shadier parts of town.
These tattoo parlors became prominent fixtures in major South African cities. Professor JT Clarke used seven colors in his designs, with tattoos starting at five shillings—adjusted for inflation, roughly $90 to $100 today.
Bertha, working with Professor Clarke every day, adopted the moniker "Princess Beatrice." She also did something she likely never would have done while married to a British consul: She received neck-to-toe tattoos from her husband.
Her tattoos included a George Washington mural on her chest, a Japanese geisha on her right arm, the Last Supper on her back, spiderwebs and butterflies on her shoulders, and a cross on her left arm bearing the names of the sisters she lost during the 1900 Storm.
Professor JT Clarke tattooed himself often, but for hard-to-reach places like the top of his head and the intricate murals on his back and legs, he enlisted the help of famous early 20th-century tattoo artist Professor George Burchett, known as the "King of Tattoos."
Burchett and JT Clarke became fast friends and no doubt influenced each other's art and lives.
Professor Clarke was tattooed from head to toe, with ornamental stocking patterns on his calves, a large snake on his right thigh, St. George on his back, and a geisha on each arm. He is particularly famous for having President Kruger of South Africa tattooed on the top of his head.
Princess Beatrice and Professor Clarke owned tattoo shops until 1913, crafting a large body of work. By the end of that year, due to political tensions in South Africa, they sold their tattoo shops and moved to New York City.
This tattooed couple no doubt turned heads.
By 1914, Professor Clarke joined the Ringling Brothers Circus and was exhibited as a sideshow attraction as "the tattooed man"—no doubt a shocking sight in the early 20th century.
The Ringling Brothers Circus, "The World's Greatest Show," featured a cast of more than 1,200 and traveled around the country in 89 double-length railcars, with a grueling schedule of 142 cities in 184 days.
After working for the circus, Professor JT Clarke and Princess Beatrice moved to Chicago.
While Princess Beatrice and Professor JT Clarke were making plans for the next stage of their lives, Professor Clarke took a sideshow job in Montreal. He contracted pneumonia and, at 48 years old, succumbed to the illness.
Princess Beatrice was, for the second time, widowed.
After a wild life with Professor JT Clarke, she lived off and on in Canada while her son earned their room and board working on a farm. She tried to convince her son to become a tattoo artist but warned him to stay away from circuses and instead set his sights on Coney Island.
After a 12-year marriage to Professor JT Clarke, Princess Beatrice missed him dearly. She never remarried. Holding onto the fond memories of her marriage to the famous tattoo artist, Princess Beatrice lived another 40 years, spending her time writing poetry and telling her grandchildren her life story.
When I received an email from Princess Beatrice's granddaughter, frankly, I had never heard of JT Clarke or Princess Beatrice, nor do I have any tattoos. But I was sent a book by Ms. Judith Lucas, one she had recently published.
The first 20 pages or so tell the stories of Princess Beatrice and JT Clarke, and as you've just heard, only a fraction of their story takes place on Galveston Island.
But the remaining 200-plus pages of the book contain copies of Professor JT Clarke's tattoos, photographs of his shops in South Africa, and images of Professor JT Clarke and Princess Beatrice covered from head to toe in ink.
No, most of this story doesn't take place on Galveston Island. But Galveston Island—and the events that happened here—brought these two together.
It is clear that JT and Bertha loved each other immensely. Their story is bittersweet. Professor JT Clarke died young, but their love left a lasting legacy for Princess Beatrice throughout the remaining 40 years of her life.
She carried on the legacy of Professor JT Clarke, proving that love, like ink, remains long after the artist is gone.
And thanks to Judith Lucas, Princess Beatrice's granddaughter, and tattoo artist Nicholas York for putting together and publishing the book Professor JT Clarke: Tattooing to Perfection.
When I flip through these pages and look at these early 20th-century tattoos, it gives me a deep sense of the time, the art style, and even the personalities of some of the people receiving these tattoos.
Whether you're a fan of tattoos or not, I highly recommend checking out this book.
When Professor JT Clarke dressed in early 1900s menswear, you would never know he was tattooed from head to toe. Bertha had always thought of JT as a strapping young lad.
Toward the end of Princess Beatrice's life, she would tell her grandchildren stories about the 1900 Storm, South Africa, and Professor JT Clarke. She also kept a few pieces of memorabilia that helped bring each of those stories to life.
One of those pieces was kept in a box in her closet.
When she cut her hair after the 1900 Storm, she couldn't bear to get rid of the hair that had saved her life. Remember, she was pulled to safety by her long hair because it was all the unknown rescuer could really grab hold of.
JT Clarke's life was a testament to reinvention: a soldier, wanderer, survivor, artist, and showman. Bertha, too, transformed her tragedy into resilience, supporting her husband's ambitions and making a name for herself as Princess Beatrice.
Their story, much like Galveston itself, is one of survival and rebirth. Though their time in Galveston and South Africa was brief, their impact on the tattooing world remains—from the storm-ravaged island to the inked bodies of soldiers and circus audiences alike.
Professor JT Clarke and Princess Beatrice left a legacy as pioneers in an art form that continues to thrive today.
Again, a huge thank you to Ms. Judith Lucas for sending me the book Professor JT Clarke: Tattooing to Perfection.
Professor JT Clarke's tattoo designs are seeing a resurgence around the tattoo world as renditions and inspiration from his tattoos are modernized and brought back to life on thousands of people across the globe.
When you walked into one of Professor JT Clarke's shops, you would be handed a series of books, much like in tattoo shops today. In these books, you would find art and designs from Professor JT Clarke himself. You could simply point at one and say, "I want that tattoo," similar to the binders or artwork hanging on the walls of tattoo shops today.
On Professor JT Clarke's books, he would write, "Anyone stealing this book will die on the spot."
An ominous but acceptable warning: Don't steal from a tattoo artist.
JT tattooed a piece of Bertha's past onto her skin—a tribute to her lost family that cemented their emotional and artistic bond. Professor JT Clarke and Princess Beatrice spent hours and hours together in their tattoo shops, traveling the world and becoming partners in life and business.
The year is 1913.
A handsome fellow stands in front of a tattoo shop in Johannesburg, South Africa. Wearing typical early 1900s menswear—long sleeves and a high collar—he looks like a businessman.
Behind him stands a woman in a dress with her arms and neck exposed. Tattoo ink covers her body. You can see the top of George Washington's head on her upper chest, a geisha on her right arm, and a cross on her left arm.
If you look a little closer, you see the date September 8, 1900, and four names on the cross.
You walk in for a tattoo. You're handed a book containing hundreds of colorful tattoo designs to choose from.
You've just traveled halfway around the world to South Africa to receive a tattoo from the famous Professor JT Clarke and enjoy the company of Princess Beatrice.
