10 Nautical Tattoos And Their Meanings

While the nautical tradition of tattooing as we are looking at it here is a mainly Western enterprise, the rich and storied histories of other parts of the world was being told and repeated through ink in skin long before.

When Captain James Cook set sail on board the Endeavour in 1768, his voyage through the Pacific Ocean brought with it many new discoveries of lands, places and people. It is said that up until Cook's visit to the Polynesian Islands, there was no word in the Western languages for the act of tattooing. He borrowed the local term "tatau" meaning to mark and the rest is history.

While his crew explored these distant shores, they also started the habit of "collecting" tattoos from different locations. Apparently fascinated, many of them were tattooed in the local manner and when they returned home, they were left with the ink in their skin and the stories to tell about it.

While it is not necessary anymore to suffer months on a sailing ship to get a tattoo in a traditional style, there are still collectors who will travel far and wide to get their ink in a time-honoured style from local practitioners around the globe.