Stoney Knows How

Life as a Sideshow Tattoo Artist, 3rd Edition
Updated edition with new photos and text exploring the extraordinary life of Stoney St. Clair, circus performer turned tattoo artist!.
The colorful life and work of Stoney St. Clair, an American tattoo icon.

In this updated edition of Stoney Knows How, the extraordinary life of Stoney St. Clair—circus performer turned tattoo artist—comes to life in photos, tattoo flash, and his own words, edited by writer and filmmaker Alan Govenar.

Born Leonard St. Clair in 1912 in West Virginia, Stoney discovered his passion for drawing at Johns Hopkins, where he was being treated for rheumatoid arthritis. Not deterred by his disability, he joined the circus at 15 as a sword swallower and then learned tattooing from other circus performers.

From traveling with the circus to setting up tattoo shops in Tampa and Columbus, Stoney met, tattooed, and worked with some of the greatest. Vincent Canby, writing in the New York Times, described Stoney as “an ebullient little man with the gab of a circus tout (spoken in the accents of Appalachia) and a fund of bizarre stories about tattooing and unrelated matters.”

Pages: 208

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.