What is a striper? A person who decorates with a stripe. Today we might call it him a detailer.
One of my grandfathers, John Felker, worked in his father-in-law Charles H Walker's carriage in Erin, Ontario and sleigh shop. He job was a striper. You need a steady hand to paint on the fancy stripes and sworls on the carriage. When the carriage/blacksmith shop closed at the turn of 1900's, he had no trouble at all find a new job with an old skill. He turned his hand to painting stripes on bicycles at the CCM Bicycle plant!