Roger Duncan, dead at 54, invented popular tattoo trend
RANCHO CORDOVA — Roger Duncan, a man recognized for popularizing the immensely popular lower back tattoo placement known as ‘the tramp stamp’ was found dead in his Rancho Cordova mobile home Monday. He was 54.
The coroner’s office says that no cause of death was immediately apparent, and foul play did not appear to be involved. Duncan lived alone in his single-wide trailer at Fancy Estates Mobile Home Park. His property manager, Sheila Erns, stated “she didn’t hear shit” at the time of his death.
Duncan’s neighbor, Patty Kimmish, said Duncan was a “good guy.” “He was always helpin’ me change the propane bottle on the front, and he even did some work on me for free,” she said, pulling down her blouse to reveal the name “Chuck” written in cursive on her right breast. “I mean, fuck that asshole Chuck now, but still, it was the thought that counts.”
Duncan, a Sacramento native, grew up in the Gardenland area, where he completed the 8th grade. He then joined the U.S. Coast Guard, where he received a dishonorable discharge with time served for exploding a latrine. After some trouble with the law, including petty larceny and mail fraud, he found his calling.
“I was in the clink with Roge, sure,” said longtime friend Scott Walker. “He was always bored, and pissing and moaning, and so I said ‘Why don’t you shut the fuck up and start doing tattoos?’ I guess it stuck.”
Duncan started by inking crude pictures of breasts on fellow cellmates forearms, but truly hit his stride when he was released from prison and started a part-time job at Foaming Dawg Tattoo in Rancho Cordova. There, Walker said, Duncan found his major interest was in tattooing women, stating “sometimes you get to see their tits.”
“He was all about doing women. He was a T&A man, if you know what I mean, heh. That’s what we always used to say about Roge - he liked having sex with women.”
In 1987, Duncan is noted for giving the first lower-back tattoo, featuring the name ‘Candyi’ encircled with vines, to Candyi McCullen, now desceased.
“Once the other girls at the strip club saw that, Roge had steady work for years,” Walker said.
Walker estimated that until his retirement in 2007, Duncan inked around 750-1000 lower backs, of “young sluts, old bitches, and even dumb-ass dudes.” Subjects ranged from “tribals to celtic knots, Japanese characters and, you know, flowers and dolphins and shit.”
While Duncan is generally credited within the tattoo community for creating the trend of the lower-back designs, Walker believes he should recieve more recognition postmortem.
“They should have a statue made to honor this guy!” he said. “I mean, he invented the easy way to tell if a girl is going to put out. That makes him ten times better than that Churchill motherfucker for sure.”
