Think I'll post the Rudy Vallee version in again to get the chords in correctly (copy and paste into Word/Times/12):


THE TATTOOED LADY

(Sung by Rudy Vallee in the 1940's as recalled by Dahlov Ipcar, 1977
Key: D (C/2))

C----------------------G
Oh, I have a very sad tale to relate,
----------------------G7-------C
'Tis the harrowing tale of a man and his mate,
------------C7---------F
A story of passion, of love and of hate,
--C----------G----------C
Of virtue cor-rupted by vice;
C
Mother Eve in the Garden of Eden (of Eden)
-----------------------------------G
Met a serpent the same as this lass,
----------Am
And she too might have turned from temptation
------------------C-----------------------G------G7
Except for that horrible snake in the grass – Oh!

Chorus:

C-------------------------------G
Shame on the man that pur-sued her,
-----G7----------------------C
That villain who viciously wooed her;
--------------C7-------F
She fell in a faint, he pulled out his paint,
--------G----------------G7----------C
And the next thing she knew he tat-tooed her!


Her downfall began as an innocent thing,
Her husband went off to go fishing one spring,
So she and her girlfriends went off on a fling,
They all went to bathe at the beach;
When this artist came up with his paint pot (paint pot),
And started to toy with her calf,
She allowed him to tinker, he painted a fiend
Who was sawing a women in half – (CHO)

This girl wasn't bright and the fellow was smart,
And now that he'd made such a favorable start,
He let her believe she was helping his art,
They met every day at the beach;
Never once did she think that he loved her (loved her)
Nor think that he'd do her some harm,
Till the day he tattooed in red, white and blue,
"I Love You!" on her arm – (CHO)

Her husband returned and the moment they kissed,
His eyes read the writing from elbow to wrist,
He foamed at the month and in fury he hissed,
His rage drove him utterly nuts;
She was hurt by his attitude deeply (deeply)
And hysterically started to laugh (ha, ha, haaaah)
Then she rolled up her stocking and showed him the fiend
Who was sawing a woman in half – (CHO)

He threw her out in the wind and the rain,
Saying, "Never dampen my bath mat again!"
Now she gets tattooed whenever she can,
She works in the circus for pay;
And her fair epidermis is painted (painted)
With pictures of sailors and such,
And if you have a needle, you too can tattoo
On the skin that they all love to touch– (CHO)

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, formerly known as Guest Roll & Go-C