Casgliadau Arlein

Tattooing case used by Jessie Knight. Dark blue painted wooden case with two metal clasps to close the lid and a canvas carrying strap. all held in place by metal plates. Circular white electrical switch and two-pin socket mounted on outside of box on one side. Another two pin socket is visible though a hole in the same side of the box. Inside the box, a wooden partition divides a narrow storage compartment from a larger area in which elctrical apparatus is screwed into the base.

Jessie Knight was the first prominent female tattooist in the UK. She took over her father's tattoo shop in Barry aged 18 in 1927 and went on to prominence whilst working in Chatham, Portsmouth and Aldershot. She returned to Barry in 1968, and continued to work there as a tattoo artist into the 1980s.