Who would be the person you would be for a year?
Andrew Stuertz, the Tattooed Boy
When did they live?
1893 - 1962
What year in their life would you want to live as them?
1907
Where did this person live?
Born in Philadelphia, became a showman at the age of 13.
What did this person do during the year you have selected to live as them?
Although the following year he hit the road traveling with the circus, several things happened to him during 1907. First of all, being an orphan and living with relatives in Philadelphia, he took off on his own for New York City. There, he met Charley Wagner (a tattoo artist) in the Chatham Square section of the Bowery and was tattooed into a circus sideshow attraction becoming billed as the youngest person ever tattooed extensively. He then joined T.E. Caffrey's Imperial Dog and Vaudeville Show.
Why do you want to live as this person for the year you have selected?
Although I never experienced poverty, Andrew did. Being an orphan during this time usually meant an early life of struggles. But Andrew escaped that by taking an extreme dare -- becoming heavily tattooed for the sideshow industry. I think it would incredible to have experienced this and enjoy the showmanship that he exhibited. He apparently "ate it up" and enjoyed every minute of it. He was able to escape a major barrier and find something that must have been a fantasy for him. He lived a dream as a youth.
Anything else you would like to add?
After the vaudeville show, he worked in the sideshows of Gollmer Brothers, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and Barnum & Bailey as a teenager before becoming a tattoo artist. He married a snake charmer performer of the sideshow and had one daughter. His wife died at the age of 51 when he was 52. As he didn't drive, he lived with his daughter and her family. Unfortunately, Andrew took his own life at the age of 68. However, the time period I would've wanted to have lived as him would have been the one year covering his age of 13 to 14.
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"My journey has just begun."