Tattoo Artist Profile: 'Lew the Jew' Alberts
- Livia Michael
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Greetings, internet! It’s Livia Michael again. Here at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles, I am learning so much about the history of tattoos and iconic tattoo artists. There are many names that come up frequently when you research tattoo history - Samuel O’Reilly, Charles ‘Charlie’ Wagner, Norman ‘Sailor Jerry’ Collins, and Ed Hardy, to name a few. But I have seldom found one particular tattoo artist’s name in this rotation: ‘Lew the Jew’ Alberts.
In a previous blog, I mentioned that I myself am Jewish, and when I came across the name of ‘Lew the Jew’ Alberts in my research, I was immensely fascinated. ‘Lew the Jew’ Alberts was born Albert Morton Kurzman in New York City in 1880. He was the son of German Jewish immigrants, Isaac and Hannah Kurzman. Kurzman and his family were not well-off, as they were working class. When Kurzman was a young teen, he began studying wallpaper design at the Hebrew Technical Institute, a trade school for impoverished Jews in New York City. He entered the workforce a few years later as a wallpaper designer. Shortly thereafter, in 1899, he joined the United States Army, serving in both the Philippines and Cuba. During his time serving in the Philippines, natives introduced Kurzman to the art of tattooing. He came back to New York City adorned with his own tattoos and the knowledge of how to create them.
When Kurzman’s military service came to an end, he started up his wallpaper career in New York once more. However, he began to feel a strong pull towards tattooing. He was disappointed in the tattoo designs being offered in New York City, and felt that he, himself could contribute to the artistic quality and craftsmanship of the art form. He started to create his own works of tattoo art and eventually met Charles ‘Charlie’ Wagner and began working at his shop in the Bowery district of New York in the early twentieth century. Wagner and Kurzman would go on to work together for many years, with Kurzman even signing Wagner’s tattoo machine patent as a witness in 1904. Their collaboration yielded a more efficient and advanced manner of tattooing, and they supplied a great number of other artists with their tattoo supplies.
In the aftermath of the first World War, there was a tattoo boom, which therefore created a higher demand for tattoos. With this higher demand, also came the increased desire for a variety of high quality tattoo designs. Kurzman was just the man for this, since his background as a wallpaper designer allowed him the skillset to create bold, neat, and clearly-depicted tattoo designs. Kurzman’s designs, known as ‘flash’, were sold all over the United States in design books from Charlie Wagner’s tattoo supply company. Kurzman revolutionized the quality, and also laid the aesthetic groundwork for many visual themes in tattoo flash and the American traditional style of tattooing. It is also interesting to note, however, that the way in which Kurzman depicted women in his flash sheets was not usually hyper-sexualized in the way that most tattoo artists depicted women or ‘pinups.’ Kurzman’s flash designs of women tended to be more tasteful, and he gave them unique expressions and physical characteristics.
Due to the high saturation of tattoo artists in New York during the tattoo boom post World War I, Kurzman began experiencing an incredible amount of professional competition and moved his business to Newark, New Jersey in the latter half of the 1920s. He passed away in 1954. His legacy is not as famous as other tattooists of the twentieth century, but his contributions and impact to the craft and business of tattooing are extensive. There is also so much beauty in a Jewish man proudly proclaiming his heritage and identity with his nickname, when such an identity often puts one at risk of antisemitism, hate crimes, and oppression. Tattooing is also a practice forbidden by Jewish law, which also makes Kurzman’s contribution to the art form all the more ironic, brave, and intriguing. I am often met with funny looks from people when they find out that I am a Jewish tattoo apprentice. But one of the most crucial tenants of Jewish culture is sharing stories of life and history. And what better way to mark one’s life story than with art on their skin?
Until next week…
-Livia Michael
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