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Sailors and Tattoos
By Carrie Vian
October 22, 2001
Looking through old pictures of my grandmother and grandfather, I notice how young and happy they are. My grandmother is a very beautiful and elegant woman, and my grandfather stands tall and strong, in his Navy uniform. He has long since retired, and besides the pictures and memories, he has a tattoo to remember those days. As a young girl I always inspected my grandfather. s tattoo, not really knowing what it meant to him. Quite honestly, I can. t believe he actually had it. It was on his forearm. There was a naked lady lying across railroad tracks with a train coming. I never understood why my grandmother would allow this. So I decided to do a field report on it.
With my decision to research tattoos, I decided to interview my grandfather to find out the significance of this tattoo of his. Due dates and the lack of transportation prevented me from doing this. So I got on-line and started checking out sailor tattooing. So, I went to the library. After spending a few hours actually looking for the books, I came to find quite a bit of information. There were a lot of very very old books that seemed to say the same things. Then, I found a few pages of material on sailor tattoos in our assigned readings. Though this was the extent of my methodology, I hope to find very useful information.
What I found was very interesting information. I found out that tattoos have been around for a very long time. According to Eldridge,. Tattooing has been linked with the seafaring lives of the world. s Navies for centuries. This tradition began in the 1700. s, when Captain Cook discovered the tattooed natives of the South Pacific. (Eldridge). I also found some interesting information about how the Government handled tattoos in the 1909. Eldridge also stated,. The United States government issued a circular in 1909 connected with recruiting which stated, . Indecent or obscene tattooing is cause for rejection, the applicant should be given an opportunity to alter the design, in which event he may, if otherwise qualified, be accepted.. . (Eldridge). The history of sailor tattoos is very important to understanding how tattooing has evolved.
Tattoos are very useful and very important to sailors. They show pride, themes, and serve as an identification marker. The most common places on the body to get tattooed are the back, the chest, biceps, forearms, and the calves (DeMello, 65). They used and most popular themes in America are flags, eagles, and American slogans. Military symbols are also popular. There are also popular sea themes and tattoos of girls (DeMello, 64). In DeMello. s writings, she stated, . & the most literal tattoo was the identification tattoo. Servicemen, for example, often had their names, service number, rank, and date of birth tattooed on them. (DeMello, 65).
I have found many examples of tattoos sailors would get while at sea or at port. Tattooing HOLD, on the knuckles of one hand and FAST, on the other is said to help the seaman hold on to the riggings better. A pig on the top of the foot and a rooster on the other is believed to protect the seaman from drowning, because these animals can. t swim so they would get the seaman quickly to shore. An anchor showed that the seaman had sailed the Atlantic Ocean. A full rigged ship showed a seaman had sailed around Cape Horn. A dragon showed the seaman had served on a China station. A shellback turtle denotes a seaman who has crossed the equator. A golden dragon shows that I seaman who has crossed the International Date Line (Eldridge). I also found an example of a tattoo a sailor got that got him discharged from the Navy. According to Steward, . The old French criminal motto, La Mort Avant le Deshonneur, transferred to American Navy and thence sinking down to the hoodlum element, often reappeared in the many . Death Before Dishonor. tattoos that were applied. One sailor had me reverse the words and put . Dishonor Before Death. on his arm. (74). This last example shocks me. For some reason I have this set vision of a Navy man. A man that is strong and proud of his country and willing to die for it.
As I review my findings, I have found out the relevance of the nude woman and the placement of the tattoo on my grandfather. s arm. It has a sense of individuality about it. It says something about him, and how he lived in the Navy. I have always known my grandfather to have a tattoo, and I have always known him to be a proud man. I have realized that tattoos are acceptable in the Navy as long as they are decent and not offending, but yet the Navy still has its regulations. I know a guy that went into the Air Force, and while in training it is illegal to get a tattoo. It is considered defacing government property. I find it very interesting that the Navy and the Air Force have different views on tattoos.
The things that went well during this field report were that every book I needed was available in the library, and the fact that I was very interested in what I was looking for. What didn. t work out for me was the interview with my grandfather. I know he is a very interesting man, just bursting with stories. I really regret not being able to interview him about is tattoo. Though I wasn. t able to interview him for this field report, I will definitely ask him the next time I go home. In the future, I will try to use the element of an interview. I think such a personal topic would have been justified with an interview; I think with the interview there would have been more relevance.
In conclusion, I have been enlightened on tattoos and their importance. I have found that tattoos mean something different to everyone and they can be interpreted differently. I have found that tattoos symbol accomplishments and individual achievements. I can now understand why my grandfather has a tattoo, and even more amazing, I can understand why my grandmother allows it. I have gained more respect for my grandfather and for his tattoo. Any sailor who has a tattoo has something important to him, and it says something about him, kind of like an untold story. Even though I might not understand why something is, I have learned that things have reason and meaning to someone in this world.
References
DeMello, Margo, 2000. Bodies of Inscription. London: Duke University Press.
Eldridge, C.W. 2001. Sailor Tattooing. Retrieved October 7, 2001 from the World Wide Web. Available on line: http://www.tattooarchive.com/sailors.html
Caplan, Jane. 2000. Written on the body. New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Steward PhD, Samuel M.1990. Bad Boys and Tough
Tattoos.
New York: The Haworth.