Leopard Bettie

And then came Bettie Page…

I’m not sure how much Bettie influenced the style of later bad girl illustration, or how much she only was expressing already existing trends.
But anyway, it’s clear that in bad girl art there is a before and a after Bettie!!

Femme Fatale

One of the dangerous women by the famous cover artist Robert A. Maguire. This one for the thriller Wild to possess (1962).

Pattern for Gogo Yubari

Maybe most know Gogo Yubari the Japanese schoolgirl assassin who fights Uma Thurman in Kill Bill with a kind of yoyo. Lesser known is that this is a reference to a Japanese TV show of the 1980s called Sukeban Deka, where a gang of teenagers fights for the police with their yoyos.

Kriemhild

Kriemhild was one of the first women with swords in the movie. Here in Kriemhild's Revenge (1924) part two of Fritz Lang's film based on the epic poem the Nibelungs.

Paws and Claws

A post apocalyptic leather-clad chick by the British fantasy artist Chris Achilleos.

Seduction of the Orient

"Oriental Magic" by the American artist Edward M. Eggleston. Despite it’s a kind of pin-up it’s too much seductive to be a typical one. The exotic dancer is quite well in the femme fatale tradition from Salome to Mata Hari.