He learned to tattoo as a young Norwegian sailor, but after a shipwreck in Canada, he decided to immigrate to the United States.

[4][5] While working on a ship that transported timber between Canada and England, he began to tattoo his shipmates using a needle tool that he made.

[2] In July 1907, when Dietzel was 16, his ship wrecked near Quebec, and he decided to work in the lumber yards there rather than return to sea.

[7] He wanted to be a fine-art painter, but he could not afford to continue studying art at Yale, so he became a full-time tattoo artist instead.

[6] He made friends with William Grimshaw, an English immigrant who was also a developing tattoo artist.

[10] Dietzel was known to wear formal clothes at work, such as a vest and tie with rolled-up shirtsleeves,[11] and even sleeve garters.

[13] His designs at that time included a full-rigged sailing ship labeled "Homeward Bound", a woman wearing a sailor cap, dragons, peacocks, mermaids, and skull and crossbones.

[2] The probate section of The Waukesha Freeman newspaper stated that he was from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and had left $28,725.02 (equivalent to $177,467 in 2023) to his heirs.

[12] Jon Reiter, a tattoo artist who grew up in Milwaukee, heard about Dietzel but could not find much information about him.