My tattoo...

My head is full of slow boats to china, inscrutable mandarins, biplanes landing at night in the fog just missing the tops of the swaying palm trees  – it’s like an old black and white movie playing in my mind, a world of far flung smoky fan-cooled bars, long midnight trains, beautiful gals and rum drinking sailors ashore for a darned good time. Lighthouses, mermaids, swallows, Chinese junks, monkeys, the Sargasso Sea, octopuses, oriental dragons, desert islands, anchors away - well, a boy can dream can’t he?

I hadn’t heard of Sailor Jerry until a customer of mine brought in four of his tattoos and asked me to paint them on four spirits tumblers. Well, one thing led to another and, with the sniff of a blog post in the air, I researched his work and was immediately smitten. I don’t have a tat, but if I do stop ever umming and arring I’d probably pick a Sailor Jerry. Which one, I’m not sure, maybe an ‘Aloha Monkey’ or a ‘Sailor Beware’ - something striking, there’s plenty to choose from.

Norman ‘Sailor Jerry’ Collins, to give him his full name, revolutionised tattooing and became the first western tattooist to be recognised as an artistic genius. At the tender age of 19, Sailor Jerry enlisted in the US Navy and travelled the world. It was during these salty voyages that he began to notice the art and imagery of Southeast Asia, using it as inspiration for his spicy tattoos. Blending the rough and ready swagger of the American sailor with the mysticism of the Far East he invented a new form of tattoo - a jokey, slightly risqué blend of eroticism and humour with just a touch of death.

He was born on January 14, 1911 in Reno but grew up in Northern California. As a child he ran away from home, hopping freight trains across the country and learned tattooing from a man named ‘Big Mike’ in Alaska. Originally he used the hand-pricking method, later in the ‘20s he teamed up with Tatts Thomas from Chicago who taught him how to use a tattoo machine, practicing on drunks dragged in off skid row.

Sailor Jerry’s first studio was in Honolulu’s Chinatown and his work was so widely copied that he had to print “The Original Sailor Jerry” on his business cards. “There’s a guy up in Canada that goes by the same name, but don’t be fooled – although he’s good in his own right, he ain’t the original Sailor Jerry.” He remained a sailor his entire life and, even during his career as a tattoo artist, he worked as the licensed skipper of a large three-masted schooner. Along with arranging sailing tours of the Hawaiian Islands he played saxophone in his own dance band and hosted his own show on US radio station KTRG.

Simple lines, strong colours, dramatic shading; there’s something of Max Fleischer and Harmon-Ising’s cartoons about his work – Betty Boop and Popeye meet Zen with a good dose of burlesque thrown in for good measure. He was prolific and his tattoos – more illustration than design – remain some of the best (many - including me - would say the best) of the tattooist’s art. From his 20s to his late 50s he stopped tattooing due to a disagreement with the IRS and unbelievably Sailor Jerry only tattooed for about 12 years. He died in 1973 aged 62 and has a 92% rum named after him.

Guys and dames, I give you Sailor Jerry - he must have been one hell of a guy. Cheers!