o.T.(126f) – Dr.Umhauer (Dold)
Born in 1919 in Germany, Herbert Hoffmann is a key figure in the history of tattooing from the second part of the twentieth century. He endures the rise of the National Socialism in his country and end up at 18 enlisted in the German army. Sent to the front, he was taken prisoner and will be released from the Russian camp of Riga in 1949. He returns home deeply traumatized, but firmly decided to devote himself to one thing only: tattooing, that he observed as a child on working class workers and that fascinated him.
He starts to practice professionally in 1955. In 1961, he opens with Jacob Acker their own shop in St. Pauli, Hamburg’s red light district. Perpetuating the tattoo tradition of port cities and ports of call, he became famous for his designs inspired by the traditional navy iconography. Christian Warlich, the greatest tattoo artist in the country at the time – and the only one allowed to work during the Second World War – titles him the “Crowned Prince” of German tattooing. But Hoffmann’s love for tattooing also expressed in photography: in the early 50s, when he worked as a salesman, Hoffmann took advantage of each trip to meet and photograph with his Rolleiflex a population of tattooed men and women who were widely persecuted by the Nazis and were living at the time on the margins of society.
He will focus on this project for over 30 years, traveling around the country and collecting the testimony of each of them. These portraits of great humanity, constitute a unique documentary, historical and artistic corpus. Herbert Hoffman died at age 90 on June 30, 2010. His photographic work is revealed to the public in 2002, on the occasion of the publication of the book BilderbuchMenschen (Living Picture Books) by Memoria Pulp publishing. In France, the art magazine HEY! published his works in its issue No. 7 and in museum as part of the exhibition HEY! modern art & pop culture Part II (2013) at the Halle Saint Pierre. His photographs also feature in the exhibition “Tatoueurs, tatoués” at the au musée du quai Branly (Paris), in which Anne & Julien, founders of HEY!, were the curators.
