Danielle Colby Cushman is a burlesque dancer, fashion designer, and reality television personality. She is best known for co-starring on the television show American Pickers with Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz on History.

Danielle is a hipster renaissance woman. Not only does she star on the History Channel’s freshman hit “American Pickers,” where she manages the shop featured on the show, but she’s a mom, wife, clothing designer, burlesque dancer and former roller derby queen. “Pickers,” an hour-long reality series about a pair of friends who troll Midwestern highways in search of barns filled with valuable antiques, has become a huge hit for the History Channel, racking up nearly 4 million viewers an episode, making it one of cable’s biggest shows. It was also picked up for a second season, which we’re hoping will showcase more of Danielle’s many talents. We caught up with the History Channel hipster via the phone as she put on eyeliner and got ready for work (at noon, no less), to get the scoop on the show, her many tattoos and her varied interests. “American Pickers” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on History. (Sucks that she is married, She’s smoking!!!)

How did you hook up with Antique Archaeology and how did the show come about?

Mike has been a really dear friend of mine for almost ten years — and he has helped me on all of my projects for about ten years — so I knew without a doubt, if he was a part of ["American Pickers"], not only would it be successful, but it would be kickass too. He’s just a really fucking cool guy. I didn’t really have any trepidation at all. I just figured if Mike’s on board I’m on board.

Danielle Colby Cushman playboy pics (NSFW):

Do you think that the show captures the reality of what you guys do?

There are a few things that I wasn’t happy about. Because it’s only an hour-long show, I think sometimes they don’t have enough time to really portray the relationships that Mike develops with some of these people and I think he appears at times to be a bit opportunistic. I suppose in certain ways we are all opportunistic, but he’s one of the most sincere people I’ve ever met. And I wish that they would show that dynamic a little bit more.

Can you talk a little about your tattoos? How many do you have?

I have my knuckles done. I have a large one on my forearm — I have a lot actually. I don’t know if they really count as individuals anymore.

Do show producers ever want you to cover them up or anything?

No, they’re really good about that.

Where do you get your work done?

I have two tattoo artists. One is out of Clinton, Iowa and his name is Blue. He owns a shop called Sleeve Weasels. He did my collar and we’re still working on that. And then there’s a guy named Billy Hill that’s going to be finishing my back piece. He’s amazing. And then Chewie, she is out of Alex in Tattooland in Moline. She’s a really kickass chick. She did my knuckles and my forearm.

What does it say on your knuckles?

Hold Fast. And she’ll be finishing my left arm, which is all entomology. I love bugs.

See More Of Danielle Tattoo Pictures:

How did your involvement with the burlesque troupe come about?

I owned a roller derby team and after three years of roller derby I pretty much tore my body up. The roller derby team I owned was called the Big Mouth Mickies, which was just a bunch of Irish girls that got together because we really wanted to do roller derby. But I think the shelf life of a roller derby girl is like three to five years. And so we really missed doing roller derby — and I’ve wanted to do burlesque for so long so I just decided fuck it — let’s start a burlesque troupe. And I own the troupe — Burlesque Le’ Mustache. It’s myself and five other girls — many of which are from the Big Mouth Mickies. Some are from the Quad City Rollers here as well. And then we have two emcees.

Where and how often do you perform?

We perform at a venue here that 80 years ago used to feature burlesque. But burlesque hadn’t been back in there until I went up to the guy who owns the theater and asked if he would take a chance on us. And he didn’t bat an eye. He’s from Austin, Texas and he said, “You know what — we have a big burlesque scene in Austin and I really think it’d go over well so let’s take a chance and do it.” So the Capitol Theater in Davenport, Iowa is our home. And we have one other venue that we work out of regularly. It’s called RIBCO — Rock Island Brewing Company. That’s out of Rock Island, Illinois. We have the large-scale theater shows, which are 1500 people at the Capitol Theater. We have those shows about every three months and then the RIBCO shows — and usually they can get about 350 people in there. We perform there a couple times a month. We travel to Chicago a lot too, because I used to live in Chicago and that’s really near to my heart. There’s a bar called Five Star there that we’ve performed at. And the Double Door is another great venue.

Danielle Colby Cushman Burlesque Dancer Pictures NSFW