“Sailors, at the constant mercy of the elements, often feel the need for religious images on their bodies to appease the angry powers that caused storms and drowning far from home.” — Tattoo Archives
Sailors have been getting tattoos since the 1700’s, since Captain James Cook supposedly. In the early 1900s, the US government forbade any men with obscene tattoos from joining the navy — this of course became the most stylish way of getting out of service. Later they changed the rule; if you had a naked woman on your arm you had to tattoo some clothes on her.
