C.H. Fellowes is the first American professionals tattoo artist known by name.
Little is known about his life in the 19th century - almost certainly he followed the fleet and practiced his art on board ships and various ports.
His Tattoo designs represent travel, courage, patriotism, defiance of death and longing for loved ones left behind - universal themes later reproduced on early tee shirts, when cotton replaced skin as a mass medium for young peoples self expression.
C.H. Fellowes design book and tattooing instruments were discovered in 1966 by a Rhode Island antique dealer and are now in the collection of the Museum of America and the Sea of Mystic, Connecticut.