Research on Tattoo artist Sailor Jerry and his old school tattoo style

When I think of Bike Culture, it’s always sweaty, hairy men covered in tattoos. Jokes aside, they always choose one style of tattoos - Old School Tattoos. Old school tattoos also known as traditional tattoos, they included a lot of bold and thick lines with less details but more meaning behind one tattoo. Mostly used during the wars when different parts of the military has their own image which represents them. I have done research on various teams but the one that interested me most is the Navy - Sailor tattoos.

They often have tattoo flash stuck on the wall and allow sailors to pick and while they’re on the sea, getting tattoos and alcohol everyday to spend their time until the mission strikes. Every tattoo flash most likely has their own meaning, for example they will get a swallow tattoo if they have sailed 5000 miles on the ocean and a second swallow if sailed 5000 more; a pig on top of their left foot and a rooster on top of their right to wish for good luck for the ship not to sink; get a Hawaii related tattoo once they arrive there and a dragon tattoo if they have came across Asia.

There is this one person who made the whole sailor tattoo remarkable and set the path for modern tattoo artists by his invention of various pigments which has never been found before - Sailor Jerry.

Norman Keith Collins, famously known as Sailor Jerry was a tattoo artist who gained popularity by his ‘new twist’ on the original old school Sailor tattoos. Sailor tattoos was a popular thing for sailors as while they wait on their ships across the ocean the only few things they could do were, get a new tattoo, get drunk and listen to music. However, Norman Keith Collins - Sailor Jerry has made a name out of himself because of his remarkable creativity in introducing colours into his tattoos. Not only colour but pigments which other tattoo artists doubt that it could stay on the skin yet Sailor Jerry made it possible, he saw colour the way no one has ever seen it and made every sailor’s body his canvas, a work of art.

Because Sailor Jerry has spent a tremendous amount of time on the sea sailing to different parts of the world he was deeply influenced by various cultures, especially the Japanese. That is why he has tried and found a way to introduce a more oriental style of imagery into his old school American tattoos. It wasn’t documented who invented tattoo flash but Sailor Jerry surely has made it popular. Tattoo flash are different tattoo images drawn onto a piece of paper and stick on the wall to allow customers to come in and just pick one which they like, a complete opposite of what people mostly like nowadays - customise tattoos. For me I prefer old school tattoos more but perhaps a bit of customisation on some of them if I have a story to remember. However, I do understand how tattoo flash was popular because it is fun, quick to get one and it has meaning behind most of it. I would like to do more research on the way they drew the old school tattoos; the colour they have chose which was yellow, green, red and black yet Sailor Jerry has invented his own kind of purple and more; experiment with them and try to introduce some of my other research such as the Indian Chintz fabric dyeing techniques in it.

Research Unit 3

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