The 388 Tattoos of Captain George and the 389 Tales of How He Got Them

Being the Allegedly True Story of the World’s Most Famous Tattooed Man As Recorded and Told by Amelia Klem Osterud with Fritz Grobe

He appeared out of the blue in Vienna, covered from head to toe in Burmese tattoos. Then, as the Golden Age of American circus began, P. T. Barnum made him the most famous tattooed performer of all time. He said he had been a pirate and a patriot, a rebel and a slave. He claimed he had been tortured by an evil Tatar despot, tattooed by a vengeful sailor in Kashgar, or inked by a princess in Turkistan. Captain George Costentenus told so many outrageous and conflicting tales – what is the truth?

What They’re Saying

The circus loves nothing as much as a good story, and the tale of the Tattooed Greek is an absolute cracker. Osterud takes readers on a warmly told, impeccably researched ride through big top adventures, tattoo history, and the popular culture of the nineteenth century.

Historian, Betsy Golden Kellem,
Author of Jumping Through Hoops: Performing Gender in the Nineteenth-Century Circus

About the Authors

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 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.

Fritz Grobe

Fritz Grobe has been a world-record-setting juggler, a circus director, and a nationally-ranked math geek. He became “internet famous” as one of the Coke & Mentos guys, creating early viral videos featuring the explosive combination of Diet Coke and Mentos that have been viewed over 150 million times. His online video work won four Webby Awards and received two Emmy nominations.
He is the co-author of The Viral Video Manifesto (McGraw-Hill) and How to Build a Hovercraft and 25 Other Amazing D.I.Y. Science Projects (Chronicle Books) with Stephen Voltz.

Fritz has performed live in 19 countries and appeared on dozens of television shows including The Late Show with David Letterman, The Today Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Mythbusters. He has more than 250 Lego sets, but—as yet—zero tattoos.
PRINT: 978-1-958604-32-8
eBOOK: 978-1-958604-33-5
LOC: 2025922079