18th century Īmerican and English sailors around 1700-1750 used gunpowder or ink to create tattoos by pricking the skin and rubbing the powder into the wound. : xvii The development of an 'identifiable tattooing tradition' among sailors may be an extension of their 'choice of social self-demarcation through distinctive dress and accessories.' : 76 Tattoos are also practical: they help to identify the body of a drowned sailor. To what extent tattooing among southern European sailors traces back to an indigenous European tattooing tradition, and to what extent it is a product of cultural exchange during the Age of Discovery is unknown. Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, Voyage autour du monde (1798) Many sea service members continue to participate in the tradition. There are records of significant numbers of tattoos among US Navy sailors in the American Revolution, Civil War, and World War II.

'Sailor tattoos' can refer to this style of tattoo, which was popularized for a broader audience starting in the 1950s. These artists developed the American traditional ('old school') tattoo style by combining sailor traditions with styles and techniques learned from Japanese tattoo artists.

In the United States, these former sailors trained a larger generation of professional tattoo artists.

Starting around the 1870s, a few former sailors began opening professional tattoo parlors in port cities in the United States and England, especially after the development of the electric tattoo machine in the 1890s. These tattoo artists informally developed a graphical vocabulary including nautical images such as mermaids and ships. Common symbols include swallows, nautical stars, and anchors.įor centuries, tattooing among sailors mostly happened during downtime at sea, applied by hand with needles and tattoo ink made with simple pigments such as soot and gunpowder. Sailor tattoos have served as protective talismans in sailors' superstitions, records of important experiences, markers of identity, and means of self-expression. People participating in these traditions have included military service members in national navies, seafarers in whaling and fishing fleets, and civilian mariners on merchant ships and research vessels. These practices date back to at least the 16th century among European sailors, and since colonial times among American sailors. Sailor tattoos are traditions of tattooing among sailors, including images with symbolic meanings.

World war two navy pacific tattoo