Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years

view, Sid revealed that he got his first piercing
during the War—a ring in his left ear. After
the War, Sid traveled for a few years before
settling in Miami, Florida. Sid had a career as
an electrical engineer until c. 1974 when he
retired.
In conducting research for this collection at
the LA&M, it was not only uncovered that
Sailor Sid was born in Chicago, but the US
census revealed that he lived with his mother
and father just blocks away from the current
location of the Leather Archives & Museum in
Edgewater! The letters from his collection, in
addition to his writings for The Theban, newsletter
of Thebans MC, also discuss his visits
back to Chicago. In the 1970s he most often
came back to see his friend Cliff Raven before
Cliff relocated to the West Coast in 1976;
later Sid came to celebrate anniversaries at
The Gold Coast.
Sailor Sid is most well known for being one of
the early piercing, body modification, and tattoo
innovators alongside Doug Malloy, Fakir
Musafar, Cliff Raven, Jim Ward, and Bud
“Viking” Navarro.
He ran Silver Anchor Tattoo and Piercing
Studio from his house, first in Miami and then
Ft. Lauderdale, where he tattooed and
pierced mainly gay men from his home. Many
of the photographs from the Sailor Sid Diller
Piercing Collection proudly reveal nuances
about his work/living space--we see dozens
of photographs in a row of genital piercings,
and then suddenly we are looking at a photograph
of Sid’s dachshunds, his Volkswagen
Beetle in the driveway, the red white and blue
anchor-themed bedspread of his bedroom.
Sid was also an Honorary Member of Thebans
MC (Miami) and was a Recording Sec-
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