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Paul
Rogers (1905-1990)
Paul
Rogers was born
on September 9th
1905 in North Carolina,
and spent most
of his childhood
moving from one
cotton mill town
to the next. Paul
started to work
in the mills when
he was only 13
years old, long
before child labor
laws were enacted. "Nothing
but hardship, man
it was hard for
everyone." Paul
worked in the cotton
mills until he
was 37 years old.
Thankfully, his
last years in the
mills were part
time, because in
1926 when Paul
was 21, he got
his first tattoo
and found his lifetime
occupation.
 Only
two years later he was
tattooing with a kit he
mail ordered from E.J.
Miller in Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1932 after tattooing
all the folks around his
home, Paul hit the road
with the J.J. Page Show
in search of adventure
and clean skin. Later that
very same year, Paul joined
the John T. Rea Happyland
Show where he met and married
the boss's daughter, Helen
Winter.
For most of the next decade Paul
and Helen worked the carnival circuit
in the summers and worked in the
cotton mills during the winters.
In 1942 when Paul got a chance
to tattoo in Charleston, South
Carolina, he jumped at it. At this
time his pay envelope from the
mill for a 40-hour workweek was
$42, which was the biggest payday
he ever had in the mills.
After getting his shop up and rolling,
Paul now was making $150 to $200
a week! Needless to say, Paul never
went back to the mills. In 1945
Paul began a 5 years association
with Cap Coleman of Norfolk, Virginia.
Coleman was lready a legend in
the tattoo world and Paul said
it was like a dream come true to
be invited to work with Coleman.
Paul stayed in Norfolk until 1950,
when the city fathers shut down
tattooing in that city. Coleman
moved across the Elizabeth River
to Portsmouth, Virginia and tattooed
for a few more years.
Paul and Lathan Connelly opened
shops in Petersburg, Virginia and
Jacksonville, North Carolina. In
1955 when Paul grew tired of traveling
between these shops, he took the
Jacksonville location and Connelly
took the Petersburg shop. This
is where the mail order supply
business of Spaulding & Rogers
was formed. Paul was involved in
this business for only a couple
of years, but Paul and Huck Spaulding
worked together in Jacksonville
up until 1961. In 1960 they closed
their shop on Courts Street and
went to Alaska. This only lasted
for one month and they returned
back to Jacksonville, North Carolina
soon after.
From 1961 to 1963 Paul and his
family lived in Camden, New Jersey
where Paul tattooed with Sailor
Eddie Evans. In 1963, he moved
to Jacksonville, Florida and tattooed
with Bill Williamson. The very
next year Bill Williamson died
and Paul inherited his shop. By
1970, Paul was back working in
Jersey with Ernie Carafa on a part
time basis.
In 1970 Paul and Helen Rogers bought
a mobile home at 1200 Shetter Avenue
#3 in Jacksonville, Florida. It
was here that Paul brought his
decades of experience together
with what he had learned from the
likes of Coleman, Bill Jones, Jack
Wills, Charlie Barr and others,
and built some of the best running
tattoo machines in the business.
In 1982 Helen, Paul's wife of 49
years, died. She was buried at
the Greenlawn Cemetery in Portsmouth,
Virginia. In 1983 Paul Rogers was
admitted to the Tattoo Hall of
Fame in San Francisco, California
which was part of the Tattoo Art
Museum created by Lyle Tuttle.
Paul suffered a stroke at his home
in Jacksonville in 1988 and never
fully recovered. The next 2 years
were spent in a nursing home in
Jacksonville. Paul died in 1990,
at the age of 84, after spending
56 years in the tattoo profession.
He was buried with his wife in
Portsmouth, Virginia.
Paul left his extensive tattoo
collection to the Tattoo Archive.
In 1993, C.W. Eldridge, Alan Govenar,
D. E. Hardy and Henk Schiffmacher
formed a California nonprofit corporation,
The Paul Rogers Tattoo Research
Center ("PRTRC") where they serve
on the Board of Directors. The
primary goal of the PRTRC is to
preserve tattoo history.
Timeline
of Paul Rogers' Life
Tattoo Archive© 2003
See
Paul Rogers' timeline,
mailing
label, postcard, a book on Paul's life, and a flash
book in our
online store.
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