souljerker78

The thing with sailor tattoos. I love them. Yet, I am with tattoos very conservative in a way. I think one should get tattooed with lots of respect for the history and traditions of cultures and subcultures. If I make this point with tribals a lot of people agree. If I make it with old school sailor tattoos I get startled looks. Old school, traditional swallows, sparrows, anchors, neptun, rigged ships have a meaning. I'd suspect one at least does enough research to know what they mean. Many of them could only be acquired by quite serious sailing when it was quite dangerous job. (It still can be, by the way.). So as much as I love those tats, I'd personally not wear them without acquiring nautical milage first. Actually that is one of the reasons, why I'll plan a Atlantic crossing as a tall ship volunteer and that will just get me an anchor, it will take another long trip for that swallow, and if I make it around Cape Horn ever? I doubt it. But the sailors deserve it. Its my way to pay them the respect they deserve. I understand that symbolism changes, and this stuff is now considered fashionable and cool kitsch with rock'n'rollers. So I don't criticize anyone. As long as it is thoughtful what one does. And not just "uuh looks cool!".