TOPEKA (KSNT) — The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library invited the community to learn about the country’s first female tattoo artist through its current exhibit, “INKED”.
Lisa Soller, the deputy director at the Lyon County History Center, traveled to Topeka to tell the story of historical figure Maud Wagner.
Born in 1877, Maud took a different life path than most women in her time; she chose to be an aerialist and contortionist in traveling circuses. Wagner ended up in St. Louis, where she met the most artistically marked-up man in America and her future husband, Gus Wagner. Maud learned her love of tattoos from her husband, covering herself from shoulders to feet and becoming the first female tattoo artist in the nation.
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“She stepped outside of that traditional role as the housewife, the farmwife, and decided she wanted to do her own thing,” Soller said. “That was really hard for women during that time because the expectations were very limited for what women could do. Not only was she stepping outside of that, but she was going into a field that was traditionally taboo.”
The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is currently hosting an exhibit titled “INKED.” The Curator of Exhibitions at the library, Brittany Keegan, thought Maud Wagner’s would be a perfect addition to the exhibit.
“The connection between the story of Maud Wagner, and being from Kansas, and then the exhibit we have, where we kind of share some of the information about tattooing, just felt like a natural fit,” Keegan said.
If you missed today’s presentation, the exhibit will be open to the public until Nov. 30.
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