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12-10-2018, 09:37
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Edmonton/PNW
Boat: Hunter 386
Posts: 1,751
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Swallow Tattoos?
I came across a reference in a newsletter about "earning your swallow" and looked it up. It seems sailors (British) used to get a swallow tattoo for every 5000nm they travelled or for other significant events like going around big capes.
Then a week later I was a Youtube vid where a Swiss sailor got a swallow tattooed as he was leaving the Canaries because he'd attained his 5000 nm mark. Is this a common tradition still or just a coincidence?
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Gaudeamus igitur iuvenes dum sumus...
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12-10-2018, 10:06
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Northern Virginia
Boat: Lagoon 42 OV
Posts: 129
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Tradition.
If you're not into the ink, patches are becoming popular.
https://www.59-north.com/hold-fast/
If this is a joke thread, I have got a lot of material for "earning your swallow" but NSFW stuff.
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12-10-2018, 10:07
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Canada
Boat: T37
Posts: 2,338
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Common. Most significant nautical tats have requirements for earning them.
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12-10-2018, 10:09
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Edmonton/PNW
Boat: Hunter 386
Posts: 1,751
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Quote:
Originally Posted by rbk
Common. Most significant nautical tats have requirements for earning them.
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But do people (i.e. members of the forum and cruising community) actually get them?
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Gaudeamus igitur iuvenes dum sumus...
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12-10-2018, 11:22
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Canada
Boat: T37
Posts: 2,338
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Macblaze
But do people (i.e. members of the forum and cruising community) actually get them?
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If they’re into it absolutely.
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12-10-2018, 12:25
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Novato, California
Boat: Rafiki 37
Posts: 288
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Not sure where I found this image. Hope you find it as interesting as I have.
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12-10-2018, 12:28
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 2,007
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Macblaze
I came across a reference in a newsletter about "earning your swallow" and looked it up. It seems sailors (British) used to get a swallow tattoo for every 5000nm they travelled or for other significant events like going around big capes.
Then a week later I was a Youtube vid where a Swiss sailor got a swallow tattooed as he was leaving the Canaries because he'd attained his 5000 nm mark. Is this a common tradition still or just a coincidence? |
It's in Wikipedia, it MUST be true.... (NOT!)
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12-10-2018, 12:34
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Edmonton/PNW
Boat: Hunter 386
Posts: 1,751
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Quote:
Originally Posted by billknny
It's in Wikipedia, it MUST be true.... (NOT!)
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Showed up in a lot more places in Wikipedia...this ain't my first rodeo :-) Actually what compelled me to ask is that it is referenced in a lot of history sites as well as a ton of tattoo oriented sites but it didn't seem to come up (other than the two things I mentioned) in anything relating to cruising.
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Gaudeamus igitur iuvenes dum sumus...
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12-10-2018, 13:21
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#9
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, in Tasmania, Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 29,765
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Well....
The year we crossed the Pacific, a couple of cruisers got Marquesan tattoos. None of the designs on the chart, though, they are geometric designs, not pictures of things. One woman got a one line sort of Picasso-esque cat on her upper thigh, quite a nice tattoo, actually, if you're into tattoos.
It seems likely to me that some cruisers are still getting tattoos as mementos of places, but if you can't bear the idea of being all wrinkly and saggy in a hospital at 80+ yrs. of age, maybe you want to avoid adding tattoos to the lot.
Ann
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
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12-10-2018, 14:29
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#10
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Jacksonville/ out cruising
Boat: Island Packet 38
Posts: 31,348
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
My Wife worked in the VA hospital in temple Tx. When she was in nursing school.
Neither one of us will ever consider a tattoo, her especially after seeing the old WWII vets with them, they don’t age well, at all.
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13-10-2018, 04:31
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#11
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario - 48-29N x 89-20W
Boat: (Cruiser Living On Dirt)
Posts: 51,347
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, ktobin.
Great first post!
__________________
Gord May
"If you didn't have the time or money to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"
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13-10-2018, 05:08
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#12
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 42
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Re: Swallow Tattoos?
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