Painted Ladies
Whispers of Western brothels, carved in bone and coin.
- Volume 2 of the Nickel Souls Series
Whispers of brothels. Echoes of corset clicks and card games.
This haunting tribute to the women of the Western underworld brings their stories back in bone, silk, and silver.
Painted Ladies dives into the velvet backrooms of saloons and shadowrooms, honoring the skeletal sirens who survived by wit, performance, and a refusal to disappear. From madams counting ghosts to dancers curtsying in the dark, each portrait in this volume reimagines the Buffalo Nickel as a haunted relic-etched with power, pleasure, and the price of being unforgettable.
These aren't just women-they're warnings. They're flame and perfume, pistol and poetry. They didn't haunt the West.
They hosted it.
Each page offers a black-and-white engraving-style illustration inspired by the hobo nickel tradition-carved coin faces reimagined as portraits of brothel queens, bar singers, poker-faced performers, and shadow-draped legends. Alongside the art are poetic vignettes that blend Western grit with ghostlight, turning every coin into a whispered confession.
Inside this book you'll find:
- 30+ original illustrations in black-and-white line art
- A poetic foreword exploring the origins of hobo nickels
- Evocative portraits of women who refused to fade quietly
- Part of the Nickel Souls series from Rustfetish
These aren't just drawings - they're relics of resilience.
Whether you color them or collect them, these portraits hold the weight of lipstick, loss, and survival.
A kiss left on the rim. A rose that never wilted. A flame that never quite goes out.
Each image blends dark feminine energy with historical grit - capturing the spirit of sex workers, saloon girls, dancers, and unsung icons who helped shape the West from its shadows. This is a book for those who see beauty in defiance and elegance in the eerie. The women in Painted Ladies didn't ask to be remembered - they demanded it.
What is a Hobo Nickel?
Born from the grit of the Great Depression, hobo nickels were altered Buffalo nickels-carved by rail riders and folk artists into tiny tributes to rebellion, identity, and memory. Nickel Souls carries that legacy forward: every volume transforming coin into story, skull into symbol, and forgotten spirit into something permanent.
Each engraving is an act of remembrance - merging tattoo-inspired illustration with coin lore and ghostly storytelling. These women are drawn in bold ink but live in the spaces between the lines. Their stories are part Western noir, part folklore elegy, and fully carved from truth that history overlooked.
Perfect for fans of:
- Gothic Western aesthetics
- Macabre beauty with meaning
- Engraving and coin art
- Tattoo-style linework
- Dark feminine folklore
- Adult black-and-white art collections
- Alternative history through art
Volume 2: Painted Ladies follows Native Warriors in the Nickel Souls series - an illustrated folklore project from Rustfetish exploring the spirits, secrets, and lost songs of the American West. From saloon cards to corset laces, these women didn't just survive.
They were the story.
