Crazy Philadelphia Eddie

It is extremely difficult to ignore the presence of tattooing in popular culture, and it is as equally hard to ignore the influence of traditional American tattoos within this art form. The images of skulls, eagles, sailing ships, daggers, snakes, pin-up girls, and banners are no longer restricted to tattoos or the hand painted placards tattoo artists used to demonstrate their talents and advertise tattoos. Tattoo designs drawn by Ed Hardy (b.1945) and Sailor Jerry Collins (1911-1973) have been printed on products such as bottles of rum, cologne, clothing, glassware, and shot glasses. Due to the ubiquity of their designs, these two tattoo artists have become household names, which may be an unprecedented popularity among their peers.

One of these veteran tattoo artists is Mr. Eddie Funk (b.1936), also known as Crazy Philadelphia Eddie, who began tattooing as a young teenager. After a prolific career as a tattoo artist, fighting the 1962 ban on tattooing in New York City Supreme Court, and owning many tattoo shops, he has become a prominent person in the international tattoo community. He and his cohorts are considered the cornerstone of America’s traditional tattoo culture. His presence in the tattoo industry has not gone unnoticed. Mr. Funk was featured in the exhibit Skin and Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor at The Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2009. He is also invited as special guest to many tattoo conventions, and he occasionally serves as a judge in tattoo competitions.

In Greek mythology, King Midas had the golden touch. Everything he touched turned from muck to gold. In American tattoo history, there has been no person with this type of luck. Some tattooers may have lived enchanted lives, but there is hard work, persistence, and an unrelenting will that seems to be the forgotten part of their stories. After his start in Coney Island, Crazy Philadelphia Eddie tattooed through countless payday weekends yelling “Next! Next! Next!”, fought the New York City ban, starved through the winters, and built many, many, many tattoo shops.

In Volume Five, Crazy Philadelphia Eddie battles the rats in Chinatown, renovates a dilapidated, empty shell of a building filled with dog shit in Kensington, develops liquid tattoo inks, falls in love with his soul mate, manages the tattooers at his shops, travels the world by ship, hosts conventions, and keeps the peace between rival motorcycle clubs. Not an easy task, but with his determination, Eddie seems to be able to cut through any grit.

In this volume, Eddie shows little restraint when dealing with those that disrespect his friends and tattoo family. Being a solid friend, a man of his word, and relentless, Crazy Philadelphia Eddie demonstrates why he is one of America’s tattoo godfathers.

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I suppose a person will always remember their first tattoo, the shop  where they got it, and who gave it to them.   I am sure that Eddie’s son, Joe, will always remember the first tattoo Eddie gave him.

Eddie tells a story about visiting Sailor Jerry’s shop in Hawaii, and about the first time he wore rubber gloves while tattooing.

Eddie fully understood the importance of wearing gloves, sanitation, and sterilization.   However, he was not so sure the Health Department Officials understood the importance of these precautions.   In this clip, Eddie asks some fairly important questions.

Eddie is NOT a man to be trifled with when it comes to his family, friends,  or business.   A handshake seals the deal, and it is a gentleman’s agreement.   There is never a hidden agenda in the fine print with Eddie.   If a person breaks their word, cheats  him, or threatens one of his friends, Eddie will straighten out everything.

In the first half of Crazy Philadelphia Eddie’s books, his life story began with his wild youth, continued into his twenties where he established himself in Chinatown, Philadelphia, and covered the seminal years of the National Tattoo Association during his thirties. Even if Eddie expected his life to become more tranquil as he matured, the insane world around him made that impossible.

Volume Four of Crazy Philadelphia Eddie’s series is a flurry of midlife adventures including the rise of the National Tattoo Association and its conventions, the pitfalls of heavily gambling, the opening and managing of several tattoo shops, the fallout of a wedding engagement and a turbulent romance, the tragic murder of a good friend, and the trials and tribulations of raising and employing his eldest daughter and teenage sons.

Shortly after finishing this volume, Eddie was in a bar drinking screwdrivers with his ghostwriter, Eric Foemmel, who asked Eddie to sum up the fourth volume of Tattooing: The Life and Times of Crazy Philadelphia Eddie, My Vida Loca. Eddie did so with two words: “Holy Shit!”

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I was never a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, but Eddie has convinced me otherwise.  Sometimes, you might not like the outcome, but their is a reason it happened.   In this clip, Eddie tells about the disappearance of another tattooer.

I am pretty sure Eddie has met more than a million people in his life, and he rarely forgets a person.   In Kentucky, there were two tattooers he remembers as stand-up gentlemen: Jay Ray Smith and Charlie Wheeler.

Stoney St. Clair is another Southern gentleman tattooer that Eddie met in his travels, and he always good things to say about this man.  Eddie feels like he knew this man before he met him.

This is another great story about one of Eddie’s card games.   In this clip he tells about the good fortune that follows when he held several wild cards  in his hand.   That night, justice was served!

In Volume One of Tattooing: The Life and Times of Crazy Philadelphia Eddie, My Vida Loca, Mr. Eddie Funk quickly established his place amongst the tattooers at Coney Island, extensively traveled the United States meeting many characters, and tattooed in several cities. Through those adventures, Eddie became a seasoned tattoo man and earned the nickname, Crazy Eddie.

In his second volume, after opening a few tattoo shops in Philadelphia, Eddie developed friendships with several tattooers, and he started personal wars with a few tattooers. Wrapped up in tumultuous love affairs, and tattooing in a neglected part of the city—Chinatown—Eddie claimed this neighborhood as his territory. He quickly became, Crazy Philadelphia Eddie.

As he continues his stories in this third volume, Eddie finds himself traveling between California and Pennsylvania and again visiting foreign shores. Opening more tattoo shops, dealing with turf wars and fierce competitors, and coping with the loss of loved ones, Crazy Philadelphia Eddie finds himself at a pivotal time where he begins to heavily influence, shape and equip the tattoo industry.

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In this clip, Eddie talks about the “body painting” shop he opened in North Carolina.   It was a hit with the Marines, but it was a target for the local law enforcement.

In this second clip from Volume 3, Eddie continues his telling  about his adventures with the neighborhood tough guy, Goergie Cheety.  Trouble and drunken brawls always followed this man.

In this third clip, Eddie explains how you can use bricks to influence people and make friends.   It just takes a little finessing, but it can  be done.

Eddie is a man who loved to play cards, and it is always important to garner the respect of the other players at the table.    Even if you don’t have the winning cards in your hand, you can still the psyche the other players out and  have them in your pocket by the end of the night.

In the 1960s, Mr. Eddie Funk opened several tattoo shops on Race Street in Chinatown, Philadelphia.  Deemed as urban blight by city planners, this cityscape was home to bums sleeping on the streets where prostitutes worked, despondent drunks dwelling in flophouses, and industrious grifters and downtrodden–yet honest–characters hustling and gambling for easy fortunes.  Amongst the handful of tattooers in this neighborhood, Eddie hung his flash on the wall, unpacked his stencils, mixed his inks, started tattooing, and joined the fray.

Bringing his Coney Island charm to Chinatown, Crazy Eddie made interesting friends, enjoyed drinks as several bars, found himself entangled in marital bliss, established himself as a tattooer in a new city, and cemented the permanence of his legendary moniker: Crazy Philadelphia Eddie.

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Please listen to the four excerpts below taken from from Tattooing: The Life and  Times of Crazy Philadelphia Eddie; My Vida Loca, Vol 2.   Each audio disk comes with eight forty-minute tracks of Eddie telling the stories for each book.  These are the raw files ghostwriter, Eric Foemmel used to write Eddie’s books.   The disks have many large files, so it meant to be played on your computer or loaded onto your itunes.

In this first excerpt from Tattooing: The Life and Times of Crazy Philadelphia Eddie; My Vida Loca, Vol 2, Eddie describes what Chinatown looked like in the 1960s.  From this location, he built his tattoo business and legacy.

Eddie describes what would happen when he tattooed minors.   As a tattooer in the 1950s and 1960s, he was prepared to be arrested and jailed at least every two years.

Jack Dracula, who had worked for Eddie in Coney Island and in Chinatown, was beginning to become an aggravation for Eddie.   After Eddie drove his car through Dracula’s shop, he wanted to punctuate the message with a brick.

Eddie traveled to many cities for fun or business.   Regardless of the reason of his excursions, Eddie was always found himself in the center of the action.  Las Vegas was no exception for Eddie.

In the summer of 1952, Mr. Eddie Funk was fifteen-years-old and about to begin his life as a young man. Drawn to the excitement of Coney Island, fascinated with the art of tattooing, and intrigued with the lifestyles of the Coney Island tattooers, he knew his place was among these veteran tattoo artists. With his affable personality, his ability to tattoo, his fists, a hammer, and a gaff hook, he quickly established his place in the tattoo industry and was dubbed Crazy Eddie.

During his travels from New York to Denmark to Chicago to Hawaii, he always demonstrated why he earned this moniker. After reading this first volume of Eddie’s unique, reckless, and good-hearted approach to life and tattooing, you will agree that Crazy Eddie is fucking crazy! It is almost certain that you will also view him as a likable and generous man who inherited a rich, cultural practice from the founding fathers of American tattooing.

The stories in this first volume chronicle the life and times of a young tattoo artist who will eventually become one of the godfathers of American tattooing.

$30/$50 with CD

Please listen to the four audio clips from this volume.   These are the recordings ghostwriter, Eric Foemmel used to write this oral history.   An audio CD is available for each volume.  The disk contains eight MP3 tracks, and each track is approximately forty-five-minutes long.   Due to the large files, the CDs are meant to be loaded onto your Itunes, or other MP3 player on your computer.

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