Rusty Skuse

Rusty Skuse Before she became the wife of British tattoo artist Bill Skuse – Rusty was plain old Rusty Field – who by the age of 20 in 1964 had 62 tattoos and was a driver in the ‘Women’s Royal Army Corps’.

Her first tattoo in 1961 - aged 17 was a small skull on her left forearm costing 6/- (30p) (which got her put on a charge when the army found out about it) – 18 months later she added her second tattoo – a devils head on her upper left arm. Rusty’s tattoo’s even got her noticed in the British tabloid ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper of the 14th of March 1964. Under the headline – ‘Tattooed Army Girl Gets Show Offers’ – telling of the 62 tattoos Rusty had tattooed all over her body – There were also other reports in the papers – with one giving its readers the groovy little title ‘Tattoo Girl Covers Up – Army warns its Miss Rainbow’ – Stating the Army had warned Rusty - that if any of her tattoos started to show from under her uniform she would be discharged from the service.

But it wasn’t long before she was spending half of her pay on getting tattooed - as it became clear early on - that Rusty was getting into tattooing in a very big way – She also started to spend as much time as possible at future husband Bill’s studio. Upon leaving the army Rusty (who’s real name is Janet) joined the tattooed ranks and started working – cleaning the floors, making coffee ect - at Bill’s tattoo studio on the High Street of Aldershot in Hants, England – before learning the ropes to become a tattoo artist herself. It must also be said that Rusty gained an incredible amount of publicity in not only the British but also the overseas press - because she was one of only a handful of heavily tattooed women in the western world during the 1960’s and 70’s.

And it was after an offer from a showman in Glasgow, Scotland to become a tattoo attraction (he was turned down) that she decided to go the whole hog and get tattooed completely – And on her 21st birthday her Mother gave her £100 pounds as a present – Which Rusty gave to Bill, (they were not married then – well we hope they weren’t) so that she could get more tattooing put upon herself, even though she did have quite a few tattoos - but no where near enough (in her opinion) at the time.

This did not go down well with Rusty’s Mother though - as she never did come to terms with her daughter being a tattooed lady. Later Rusty went on to feature in the ‘Guinness Book Of Records’ as the Britain’s most tattooed woman -This coming about after she was seen giving interviews about her tattoos in the press – which included appearances on television shows - And it was the people from the ‘Guinness Book’ who contacted the Skuse’s asking to see pictures of her – So Bill sent photographs back to them showing Rusty and her tattoos and she was accepted into the book as the ‘Britain’s most tattooed woman’ soon after – It must also be pointed out - that Rusty has never ever claimed to be the world’s most tattooed woman - even though many magazine’s and newspapers have (wrongly) bestowed that title on her over the years.

To be fair - it is only right in saying that at the time of Rusty’s first entry into the Guinness book in 1970 – the world’s most tattooed lady was (probably) Japan’s Mrs G. Ohwada the wife of the tattooing legend Mr Mitsuaki Ohwada (Horikin) – who was also completely covered in tattooing himself - and was the chairman of the very exclusive ‘Tattoo Club Of Japan.’

Rusty appeared in the ‘Guinness Book Of Records’ for over two decades and at one time there was a life sized manikin of her displayed outside the ‘Guinness World Of Records’ exhibition at the ‘Trocadero’ in Piccadilly, London – with the little known fact that the staff at the ‘Trocadero’ had a terrible job in dealing with the public - who would pull the bikini bottoms down all the time - to see if there were any tattoos on down under. Rusty also went to Japan twice to appear on Japanese television with other record holders - and on one trip Pat Bone accompanied her when she appeared on the ‘What’s My Line’ television show of November 1978 – Rusty also said ‘that the Japanese people treated her like a Queen’.

On retirement Bill and Rusty opened and run a boarding kennels and stray dog’s home – She did however return to tattooing - running a private tattooing studio in Derham, Norfolk for a while – but as of 2007 Rusty has once again retired from the tattooing profession.Just some of the tattooists that have tattooed Rusty in the past have been; Bill and Les Skuse, Ron Ackers, Chris Connett, Lyle Tuttle, George Bone, Cash Cooper, Dennis Cockell and Bob Maddison to name just a few. Rusty is a former holder of the Miss Tattoo title (Awarded at the Dunstable Tattoo Expo) – And the tattooing Bill and Rusty did on George Bone helped to get him into the ‘Guinness Book Of records’ and also enabled George to secure third place in the ‘Men’s Beauty Contest’ at the Sacramento (USA) ‘National Tattoo Club of the World’ convention in 1980.

Paul Sayce <b></b>

Comments

Add a comment