Lot 102

Letter and Photo from Tattoo Artist Harry "Pop" Hoff (Philadelphia, 1957)

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Letter and Photo from Tattoo Artist Harry "Pop" Hoff (Philadelphia, 1957)

Estimate: $150 - $250

Current Bid: $275

(5 Bids)

by Bray & Co. Auctions
July 26, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
33 Jewell Court
Portsmouth, NH, US 03801

Letter and Photo from Tattoo Artist Harry "Pop" Hoff
(Philadelphia, 1957)
Handwritten letter and mailing envelope from tattoo artist Harry "Pop" Hoff to tattoo artist Ralph Miller, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1957. Written in response to Miller's request for information regarding tattoo machines, parts, and his prospects in the tattoo trade. Hoff offers candid advice and generally discourages him from pursuing the profession, while noting that "There is lots of money in the game."

Ralph Miller (1937–2008) spent much of his life in and around Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, where he worked in his family's paint store and, for roughly two decades, tattooed from a custom-built mobile studio. Little is known about how he became interested in tattooing, but by 1956 he had already received work from Coney Island artist Max Pelz and was corresponding with Philadelphia mainstay Professor Harry Hoff. Photographs of Miller's trailer taken just a few years later show a fully equipped studio covered in flash and decorated with artwork and artifacts from the trade, including a set of old photographs of local tattooed grocer and friend William "Bill" Gavin, whose body suit was executed by Allentown tattoo artist Henry Biehler during the 1930s and 1940s.

Over the years, Miller accumulated a diverse group of tattoo material that extended far beyond his own career, including flash, photographs, and ephemera dating from the 1910s through the mid-1970s. Early commercial designs by Percy Waters and J. F. Barber survived alongside mid-century supply catalogs from Milton Zeiss and a souvenir pitchbook from Jack Dracula, bringing together material from several generations. Miller appears to have stopped tattooing in the early 1970s to focus on M&M Amusements, a traveling carnival company that for more than forty years supplied rides and games to fairs and carnivals throughout eastern Pennsylvania.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000