Sailor Tattoo symbolism

With all the superstition of going to new lands and maritime legends sailors were bound to find comfort in tattoos, here are some of the protective tattoos they used most.

Milestones:
• Sparrow → every 5000 nautical miles traveled

• Anchor → in the navy, sailors would get an anchor after successfully crossing (and returning from) the Atlantic Ocean. The other representation was that anchors, being the object that secures the ship was an icon of stable, unfaltering faith. A reason why you would sometimes see ‘MOM’ or ‘DAD’ across it in a banner – the reasons for staying grounded.

• Dragon → signified that the sailor had served in a China station or sailed to a China port.

• Golden Dragon → crossing the International Date Line (an imaginary line on the surface of the earth following approx. the 180th meridian.)

• Fully rigged ship → for having sailed around Cape Horn.


Luck:
• HOLD FAST → a reminder to hold on to the lines fast when the ship is aloft in bad weather, so sailors would not be thrown off.

• Pig & Rooster → (on the feet or behind the ankles) traditionally believed to symbolize survival from a shipwreck. As both animals were often kept in wooden crates on board, when a ship capsizes, these crates would float with the current and most likely get washed up to shore. Another explanation (pig tattooed on the left knee and a rooster on the right foot) was that "“Pig on the knee, safety at sea. A cock on the right, never lose a fight."

• Twin propellers → (on each buttcheek) to prevent from drowning, as they were meant to ‘propel’ you ashore.

• Swallow → (due to their migration pattern) to always be able to find your way home, home in this sense could mean home with your family or called home to God in death – birds were believed to carry souls of the departed to heaven.

• Nautical star → represents the North Star; traditionally used for navigations out at sea. It served as a guide and a way back home.

Mementos:
• Dagger through a Swallow → to signify a lost comrade

Class:
• Crossed anchors → (between thumb & index finger) a mark of being a boatswain mate, sailors could have it done on the left hand: sailed all the Oceans, or right hand: sailed the Seven Seas.

• Harpoon → member of the Fishing Fleet.

• Rope → (around the wrist) a mark of being a Deckhand, current or previously.

• Guns or cross cannons → member of the Military Naval Service.

• Anchor → signified a Merchant Marine.

Girl:
• Pin-up girls →  Girls tattooed on these men were often a reminder of the ladies waiting for their safe return back home.

• Mermaids → mermaids were thought to be like harpies, luring sailors to their death with their beauty, its also a metaphor for the sea to stay on the lookout for dangers.

• Hula girls → usually inked on a sailor who'd been to Hawaii.