Robert Frank
American, born Switzerland, 1924–2019
Tattoo Parlor
INV-1560
Robert Frank
American, born Switzerland, 1924–20191958
Tattoo Parlor
Robert Frank American, born Switzerland, 1924–2019 →gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) prphotographic process
Date
1958
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 34.9 × 26.1 cm (13 3/4 × 10 5/16 in.); Support: 35.5 × 27.7 cm (14 × 10 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Robert Frank
Widely known as the cover image of the Rolling Stones’1972 album Exile on Main Street, this photograph was likely made not at a tattoo parlor but at Hubert’s Museum and Flea Circus, a popular dime museum near New York City’s Times Square. The central picture in the third row from the top depicts Hezekiah Trambles (or “Congo the Jungle Creep”) and was taken at Hubert’s by another famed photographer, Diane Arbus. The cover art for Exile also included photographs Frank had made on his travels for the celebrated photobook The Americans (1958), paired with shots of the band’s musicians in downtown Los Angeles in 1972. The Stones later enlisted Frank to film their American tour in support of Exile, resulting in the candid but controversial documentary Cocksucker Blues (1972).
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