Nautical tattoos come in a wide range of styles, and many of them don’t appear to be directly related to life at sea, though some do incorporate maritime elements like ships and anchors. Tattoos can serve as a map for sailors, depicting adventures on the seven seas and paying tribute to memorable people and ports of call encountered during a seafaring career. Many people enjoy getting old fashioned nautical tattoos, even if they are not sailors, as evidenced the numerous examples of nautical tattoos in flash galleries at tattoo studios.
Animals are a common theme in nautical tattoos, with different animals representing different meanings. Many sailors, for example, used to get sparrows to commemorate a specific distance traveled, as well as swallows to guide them home, as swallows are known for being homing birds. Pigs were tattooed on the feet in the hope of preventing drowning, possibly because pigs were transported in lightweight crates on sea voyages, and these crates would float in the event of a wreck.
The compass rose is a well-known nautical tattoo that is said to aid sailors in finding their way home. Many sailors also received stylized stars that were supposed to guide them home, a nod to the use of stars in the sky as navigational aids. Some sailors have tattoos of the names of the ships they’ve served on, and sailors used to get tattoos of their ships, which were usually fully rigged with sails, back in the days of sailing. Bible verses and other devotional tattoos are also common among sailors; one story claims that during the days of corporal punishment on ships, sailors got such tattoos on their backs in the hopes of avoiding a flogging.
Anchors, ropes, wheels, and propellers are common nautical tattoos, especially among those who have served in the merchant marine. Many deckhands had rope tattoos on their wrists to represent their work, while sailing ship crews had “hold fast” tattooed across their knuckles to remind them to grip the ropes while at work. Sailors who served in the military may have had guns or cannons tattooed on their bodies, while fishermen had harpoons and other fishing tools tattooed on their bodies. Lighthouses are also common, and they are designed to keep the wearer from drowning guiding them back to shore.
Hula girls for Hawaii, for example, and palm trees for trips to the tropics are examples of nautical tattoos that commemorate ports of call. Sailors who traveled to China may have had dragons, traditional Chinese sailing boats, and other Chinese themes tattooed on their bodies, while a turtle symbolized an equatorial crossing. Although the tradition of nautical tattoos is fading in some areas, particularly among the armed forces, where strict laws about acceptable tattoos apply, nautical tattoos are unlikely to vanish entirely due to their long history.