Episode 17: Sailors’ Tattoos
Sailors in particular are known for their decorated canvases of bodies. It is often said tattooing was first introduced to sailors after Captain Cook’s voyages to the South Seas. Here the men encountered the islanders with extensive tattoo designs, and the sailors were smitten.
Captain Cook himself undertook a systematic study of these designs and several of the sailors on his the voyages had themselves tattooed. Everything about the first sailor tattoos were simple.
They were marks of identification or affection. But gradually, and as things do with sailors, a superstition began to grow around tattoos. Different tattoo designs began to take on specific and often superstitious meanings.
The first designs were very simple. They were extremely basic line drawings of anchors, mermaids, initials, crucifixes, love hearts, and patriotic symbols. The location of tattoos was predominantly on the arms and hands, at least initially, but tattoos gradually spread over the whole body.
SHOW NOTES:
:30 HOW SAILORS REVOLUTIONISED TATTOOS: SAMUEL O’RIELEY
Samuel O’Reilly joined the US Navy in 1875. During his time there, Sam learned many new skills.
He learned how to fasten a line, basic firefighting, ship preservation, and many other technical skills Now Sam lived a bit of a rough and tumble life. This included some time in prison. But Sam learned one particular skill during his naval service that stood out amongst the rest, and would change the course of his life, and history, forever. Sam claimed he learned the art of tattooing during his his time in the navy..
And though life had been rough, in 1891 everything changed for Sam. Because that was the year he was granted a patent for the very first electric tattooing machine.
This machine revolutionised the art of tattooing. It allowed for increasingly more elaborate designs to be crafted. Finer lines and shading were both now possible, when before, had been a concept only in dreams.
1: 30 COOK & BLIGH’S DOCUMENTATION OF SAILOR’S TATTOOS
It is often said tattooing was first introduced to sailors after Captain Cook’s voyages to the South Seas. Here the men encountered the islanders with extensive tattoo designs, and the sailors were smitten.
Captain Cook himself undertook a systematic study of these designs and several of the sailors on his the voyages had themselves tattooed. Captain Cook’s sailing master, Captain Bligh, who’s story I told way back in Episode 5, also took a certain notice of tattoos, though he himself was not known to have any. It turns out that one of the best indicators of sailor’s tattoos in the eighteenth century we have today comes from Captain Bligh’s description of the mutineers of the Bounty.
Most of these mutineers had tattoos. These were a mix of British and Polynesian designs, and Bligh wrote about them in his journals.
The British designs included initials and hearts, and one sailor had the motif of the Order of The Garter and another the Manx three-legged symbol. The Tahitian designs included stars on the breast and elaborate designs on the buttocks.
Bligh wrote that Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny, had a star on his left breast and a Polynesian design on his backside.
3:25 THE FIRST SAILOR TATTOO DESIGNS
Everything about the first sailor tattoos were simple. They were marks of identification or affection.
But gradually, and as things do with sailors, a superstition began to grow around tattoos. Different tattoo designs began to take on specific and often superstitious meanings.
The first designs were very simple. They were extremely basic line drawings of anchors, mermaids, initials, crucifixes, love hearts, and patriotic symbols. The location of tattoos was predominantly on the arms and hands, at least initially, but tattoos gradually spread over the whole body.
3:45 MEANING BEHIND THE ORIGINAL SAILOR’S TATTOOS
A knotted line on a sailor’s wrist identified him as a deckhand A single anchor meant a sailor had crossed the Atlantic. A swallow indicated that a sailor had voyaged 5,000 nautical miles. And of course, well-travelled sailors would have several swallows on their body.
4:20 THE FIRST TATTOOIST
The first tattooists were the sailors themselves, and while I wouldn’t call them artists, per se, they did possess a certain talent and valued skill amongst their peers. There was usually a crew member who was either skilled in the work or at least trusted by his fellow crewmates to undertake the task. Or maybe he just had a steady hand, but as we know, sailors were pretty crafty individuals.
4:50 HOW THE FIRST TATTOOS WERE APPLIED
Not only were the first designs simple, but the technique to apply them was as well. First, the sailors drew the design on the skin with a pen. After that two, three or even four needles were tied together, and dipped into ink.
Then, with the skin pulled taut, the tattooist punctured the skin along the lines of the design with his needles. These needles needed to go deep enough into the dermis to remain permanent. The process was painful, bloody and extremely unhygienic. And to top it all off, once the tattooist completed his work, they then cleansed the wounds with urine. Bearing the pain of receiving a sailor’s tattoo was all part of this masculine culture of seafarers. It truly was an integral part of the bonding process among sailors. The ink that was used was generally lamp black mixed with animal fat or glue.
But tattooists could get creative and often improvised with whatever was around – even gunpowder.
There is a story that circulates around that on occasion a thin trail of gunpower was poured along the lines of the pattern. It was then ignited to create the tattoo. This is rather improbable though, and more likely the black gunpowder was used as an ink instead of an explosive.
6:10 PROFESSIONALS TATTOOIST SET UP
In the 1860s and 70s professional tattooists began to establish themselves. Many were ex-sailors who had gone to a life ashore and decided set up in business in port towns and cities.
6:30 SAILOR JERRY
Probably the most famous sailor tattoo artist is the American known as ‘Sailor Jerry’. Sailor Jerry lived a very unconventional early life. He rode the rails and learned the art of tattooing on drunks as well as on dead bodies in the morgue. His trade ended him up in Chicago practising on recruits from the Great Lakes Naval Training Academy. He then enlisted in the navy himself and continued to practise his art on his fellow seamen. Once Jerry got out of the navy he settled in Hawaii and became one of the most celebrated tattooists ever, with his highly accomplished designs being compared to works of art. Sailor Jerry’s top speciality was tattoos of fully rigged sailing ships. He is responsible for pioneering the use of different colour inks that made his designs distinctive.
If you’ve ever walked into a tattoo parlour, you’ve probably one of Sailor Jerry’s designs on the wall.
9:25 SAILOR’S SUPERSTITIOUS TATTOOS
They told stories of their tattoos, and the superstitions they carried with them. A tattoo of a mermaid would protect against the dangers of the sea. A Compass rose or a nautical star would allow a sailor to find his way home.
Anchors signified safety and security
A lighthouse is a symbol of light, hope and safety, something seafarers look to and rely on as their guide to help them in times of need.
One of my personal favorites is a propeller tattooed above each buttock. This would help to propel a sailor to shore if he was shipwrecked.
Another one? A pig on one foot and a rooster on the other. These tattoos are supposed to prevent a sailor from drowning. The reason being, when a ship went down, the crates with these animals floated, and they would oftentimes be the only survivors of a shipwrecked vessel.
