Sailor tattoo

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Sailor tattoos are tattooing traditions among European and American seafarers, including naval service members and merchant mariners, and tattoo designs and styles influenced by those traditions. These practices date back to at least the 16th century among European sailors, and they spread to sailors in British colonies, including those that became the United States and Canada. People participating in these traditions have included military service members in national navies, civilian mariners on merchant ships, and fishermen. In particular, there are records of significant numbers of tattoos on U.S. Navy sailors in the American Revolution, Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Sailor tattoos have served as a form of identification, protective talismans in sailors' superstitions, records of experiences, markers of identity, and means of self-expression. For centuries, tattooing among sailors mostly happened during downtime at sea, applied by hand with sewing needles and tattoo ink made with simple pigments such as soot and gunpowder. These informal tattooists applied a folk art vocabulary including crucifixes, heart symbols, and nautical images such as anchors, mermaids, and tall ships, along with names and initials. Starting around the 1870s, some former sailors began opening professional tattoo shops in port cities in the United States and Europe. This trend increased after the development of the electric tattoo machine in the 1890s, which enabled faster application of tattoos and more elaborate tattoo designs. Many customers of these early professional tattoo artists were sailors. American tattoo artists in the late 1800s and early 1900s tended to offer simple designs with black outlines and limited colors, which enabled quick work. By the 1920s–1930s, some of them created and sold sets of pre-drawn designs (flash) in this style, including many maritime-inspired motifs. This style became known as American traditional (old school). This style was further popularized in...