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Oct 02, 2023

Tattoo: Maritime art form has featured many popular images over time

Museum Educator Maritime tattoos are a popular form of artistic expression, like

Museum Educator

Maritime tattoos are a popular form of artistic expression, like for these sailors aboard the USS New Jersey.

Maritime tattoos have a long and complicated history. Cultures around the world have their own stories behind their designs, particularly in Japan and the Pacific Island nations.

Traditional American maritime tattooing is said to have gotten its start after James Cook's voyages in the South Pacific during the 1700s. Cook's sailors got tattoos as souvenirs of their time at sea, and this connection to seafaring culture soon gave maritime tattoos their own singular style.

Tattooing onboard sailing ships was risky and infections were common. The needles sailors used onboard were often the same needles used to mend the ship's sails.

As time went on, techniques became safer and the industry was able to expand. Samuel O’Reilly's electric tattoo pen transformed tattooing into a much more efficient process starting in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Sailors covered themselves in images that symbolized their lives at sea. Designs represented faraway loved ones, everyday duties, personal triumphs and the many superstitions that dictated life onboard.

Many of these images started with distinct meanings and have evolved to how we understand them today.

The fully-rigged ship was traditionally given to veterans of the journey around Cape Horn — an important trade route and hazardous waterway — before the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. The tattoo depicts a ship with three or more masts and square-rigged sails that are fully deployed.

A few examples of a fully-rigged ship tattoo.

During World War I and World War II, it was common to see the fully-rigged ship tattoo decorated with patriotic symbols — showing sailors’ support for their country. As technology advanced and mariners’ voyages became less treacherous, the fully-rigged ship has come to symbolize a more general appreciation for maritime life.

Some maritime tattoos represent a sailor's work onboard. The bosn's anchors are a pair of crossed anchors that are usually tattooed between a mariner's thumb and index finger. They are often a sign that someone has served as a boatswain's mate — a role that manages any activities relating to a vessel's external structure or seamanship.

A rope tattooed around the wrist or "Hold Fast" written across the knuckles indicate a sailor's career as a deckhand. It's said that having Hold Fast on each of a deckhand's fingers would give them the grip they needed to work with the ship's lines and rigging.

A swallow from a sheet of flash designed by Sailor Jerry in the 1940s.

Another common tattoo is a swallow — trendy in recent years among more land-based travelers. The swallow has been attributed several meanings over the years. Many say that each swallow on a sailor's body indicates 5,000 miles at sea, which is particularly impressive given how perilous a life at sea can be.

Some mariners get swallow tattoos as tokens of protection or goodwill. It was widely believed that if a person died at sea, the spirit of the swallow would carry their soul to heaven — an idea that may have originated from the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Given all the dangers someone could face spending weeks in the open ocean, many tattoos reflect the superstitions sailors developed over the centuries to combat them.

A pig and rooster tattoo has become a guardian to mariners everywhere. A pig is usually tattooed on the left foot, with a rooster on the right. Historically, pigs and roosters were packed onto wooden crates that did a surprisingly good job of protecting them when disaster struck. Legend has it that after a shipwreck, these crates managed to bob their way to land and cracked open to reveal farm animals that couldn't swim wandering on the beach, while others onboard may not have been as lucky.

Bert Grimm was one of the most renowned traditional tattoo artists in the country.

One particular artist who transformed the world of tattooing has a local connection. Bert Grimm was born in 1900. He ran away from home at a young age and began working in carnivals, which was a hub for early tattoo artists.

After making a living as a sideshow tattoo artist, Grimm eventually made his way to the West Coast and began tattooing with George Fosdick, an influential artist based in Portland.

An example of Bert Grimm's work in maritime tattoos.

Over a more than 70-year career, Grimm tattooed in Portland, Seattle, St. Louis, San Diego, and Long Beach, California.

He tattooed sailors about to be shipped out during World War II and the Korean War. In the postwar years, he maintained his position as one of the most renowned tattoo artists in the country. His tattoo shop at the Nu-Pike in the 1950s and '60s was considered one of the oldest operating shops in the continental U.S.

His final shop was in Gearhart, and he worked well past his official retirement. He died in 1985 and is buried at Ocean View Cemetery.

Julia Triezenberg is an educator at the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

Museum Educator

Julia Triezenberg is the Museum Educator at the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

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