San Joaquin County women share meaning behind their ink in exhibit

Sixteen women from San Joaquin County share the stories behind their most meaningful tattoos as part of a traveling exhibit on display at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum.

For Christyn Flores, 52, of Stockton and her daughter, Emma Simpkins, 22, a student at University of California, Santa Cruz, it is parts of a butterfly that become one when the women put their forearms next to each other.

For Samantha Johnson, 32, of Stockton, it is a black and gray set of two revolvers with three flowers that rests on her lower back.

For breast cancer survivor Desiree Maldonado, 53, of Tracy a drawing of magnolias cover her surgical scars.

The story behind those and others are told as a community addition to “Tattooed and Tenacious: Inked Women in California’s History.”

“The exhibit talks about the tattoo craze of the working class of tattooed ladies who performed in the circus side shows and how the women of the upper class had a way of hiding their tattoos because of the clothing of the time,” Julie Blood, collections and exhibits manager at the museum, said.

Flores and Simpkins had their tattoos done together. For Flores, it was her first tattoo, for Simpkins, it was one of many.

“It’s just such a strong emotional connection for us,” Flores said.

“It was a way for me to make a permanent mark of our relationship…” Simpkins added. “I think that the butterfly is really just a big aspect of like, the way that our relationship has evolved and the way that we have both evolved as people.”

For Johnson a tattoo is “a portion of yourself. It’s a piece of art. It’s like getting a chapter of your book put onto your skin.” She had her tattoo done in 2011 in remembrance of a previous abusive relationship.

“I got the guns as just a remembrance of the time and how to protect self and also to advocate against gun violence,” she said.

Maldonado said had originally sought a tattoo of roses. But her tattoo artist recommended magnolias because they bloom once a season.

“Well, this was cancer-related so I wanted my cancer to only bloom once in my lifetime,” she said.

Her tattoos brought her freedom.

“I get to face the mirror again; I don’t think about my breast cancer when I stand in front of the mirror any longer,” she said. “It freed me in a way because I was held captive in my mind … after you lose your breasts you want to feel like a woman and these tattoos allowed me to feel a woman again.”

The photos of their tattoos were taken by Rich Turner, a former Stockton Record photojournalist, who operates his own photo business.

“I just wanted to be as faithful as I could to their original art,” Turner said.

A red heart tattoo with the word “Elvis,” an angry Betty Boop, and hummingbirds are just some of the other tattoos photographed for the exhibit.

“For some of these women, it’s the first time that they’ve actually seen their tattoo that isn’t backward because they’re so used to looking at it in the mirror,” Blood said.

The traveling exhibition came to Lodi from Exhibit Envoy, a partnership with the Hayward Area Historical Society and History San Jose. The exhibit first began at the Hayward Area Historical Society in Hayward by curator Amy Cohen.

The exhibit explores six themes: Native Ink, Wealthy Women and the Tattoo Craze, Tattooed Ladies (Circus Sideshow Performers), Female Tattoo Artists, The Mechanics of Tattooing, and Tattooing After World War II.

A mannequin hand drawn by six female Bay Area tattoo artists is on display at the museum:

• Jen Marshall and Chelsey Munster, Simms Ink in Hayward (torso)
• Carolyn LeBourgeois, FTW Tattoo Parlor in Oakland (left arm)
• Hannah Wednesday and Candi Kinyobi, Tuesday Tattoo in San Francisco (right arm)
• Kristy Quinones, Black and Blue Tattoo in San Francisco (hands)

“I think it’s really, really beautiful that tattoos are kind of becoming a little more accepted … I think for a really long time, there was a lot of judgment around people with tattoos,” Simpkins said. “So, I’m glad to see that that’s kind of being challenged with this exhibit … it’s very inspiring to me.”

If you go

When: 10 am-4 pm Thursday-Sunday, through Aug. 7

Where: San Joaquin County Historical Museum, 11793 N Micke Grove Road, Lodi

Admission: $7 adults; $6 seniors; $5 kids; Free for children 5 and younger, members, and military (during Blue Star Families Summer 2022), $6 parking

Information: https://sanjoaquinhistory.org/explore/exhibits/

Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.