Amelia Klem Osterud

Amelia Klem Osterud is a heavily tattooed freelance historian and public librarian from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who has become the world’s leading expert on tattooed performers. She researches and writes on circus, sideshow, and tattoo history and is on the board of the Circus Historical Society.

She is the author of The Tattooed Lady: A History, The 388 Tattoos of Captain George and the 389 Tales of How He Got Them, and a contributor to The World Atlas of Tattoo and Tattoo Histories: Transcultural Perspectives on the Narratives, Practices, and Representations of Tattooing.

Amelia is a fan of swimming in very cold lakes and has either 421 or 38 tattoos, depending on how you count them. She is always planning her next one.