"Tattoos No Longer For Sailors & Whores"

Tattoos with sailors can be traced back as far as the 1700s when Captain James Cook came across the Maori of the South Pacific, and his crew decided to get tattoos as "souvenirs" of their visit. After that the connection between sailors and tattoos steadily increased.

It had often been said that sailors and prostitutes were the only ones that had tattoos and that they'd end up in prison someday. 

Miss Eleanor Barnes of the Seaman's Institute once remarked, "Some people pour out their colorful stories to juries. Others relieve the tension by writing for the confession magazines. The sailor enlists the tattooers needle upon his own body in dull blues, vivid reds, greens and yellows to record the story of his loves and hates, his triumphs, his religion, and his patriotism." Enuf said! 

In the 1940s tattoos saw one of the biggest booms the tattoo trade had known in years. From far and wide, eligible young Crackerjacks were flocking to their favorite needlers with demands for lingerie, skirts, brassieres, fans, bubbles, flowers, and butterflies, almost anything that would cover up a bare spot.

Norman Collins, better known as Sailor Jerry, was a prolific tattoo artist for sailors. During the Second World War in Honolulu, Hawaii, the red-light district was ablaze with sailors and soldiers about to ship off, and in the very center of this was Collins. His skill and prolific work helped make tattoos an art form in America rather than merely a permanent souvenir for drunken sailors.

Since the 1970s, tattoos have become a mainstream part of global and Western fashion, common among both sexes, to all economic classes, and to age groups from the later teen years to middle age. For many young Americans, the tattoo has taken on a decidedly different meaning than for previous generations. The tattoo has "undergone dramatic redefinition" and has shifted from a form of deviance to an acceptable form of expression.

Tattooing has been on the increase: habit not confined to seamen only…

Once the mark of sailors and bikers, body art is now sought after by the fashion-hungry… 

Tattooing has "entered the mainstream" 

Tattooing has passed from the savage to the sailor, from the sailor to the landsman. It has since percolated through the entire social stratum; tattooing has received its credentials, and may now be found beneath many a tailored shirt.

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