Sailor Jerry. Born Norman Collins in 1911, Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins is probably the best known tattoo artist of our times and sometimes is even thought of as the father of the old school tattoo.
Jerry’s style of “Sailor” tattoos is
still going strong 30+ years after his death and his legacy is far
beyond tattoo designs or flash. The company with his name is
responsible for many items including clothing, baby shoes, jewelery, patches, purses, ash trays, card
s and anything else you can even think of. All the companies items
have colorful images on them that originally were the Sailor Jerry
tattoo designs...
A name that has become associated with tattoos, especially vintage tattooes is Sailor Jerry
To this day, tattoo shops all over the world keep up the vintage traditions offering those same colorfull images that set the
standard so long ago. The people getting these tattoos are no longer
sailors stationed far away from home. But they love the art so much
that they commit to it for the rest of thier lives. Those images of
Hawaiian Hula girls, large boats, roses, hearts, mom and dad, and
overly endowed dancers are still going strong today.
A bit about vintage tattoos, sailors and the man, Sailor Jerry:
While some men set up comfortable homes in the suburbs and
saved for better washing machines and lawn mowers, others set out to
see the world through the hopped-up, wild eyes of shore leave. When
they got back on the ship they had some stories to tell and some
permanent artwork
to boot. Back then, the prime tattoo site wasn’t an ankle, it was a
beefy forearm that informed all casual observers that you’d done things
and been places that set you apart from the gray flannel world.
The Old School Master
If you really want a true classic, you’ll have to go back in time
and cross the ocean (unless you live in Honolulu). That’s where you’d
find a guy with a white tee shirt, an oily grey pompadour and heavily
tattooed arms, once known to seamen and still known to tattoo
aficionados as “Sailor Jerry.” He’s the man many see as the father of
the deftly crafted, boldly lined, balls-forward Old School Tattoo. The
kind fueled by the devil-may-care appetites of men far away from home.
Sailor Jerry - Norman Collins
Sailor Jerry was tagged with the name Norman Collins at birth, but
he began to distance himself from normalcy/ normancy when he was 19
(that’s why he became a sailor).
He traveled around the world, not only getting his first tattoos,
but also gaining exposure to the art and imagery of Southeast Asia.
This later became a crucial influence when he opened his first tattoo
shop in Honolulu’s Chinatown, ground zero for swaggering sailors,
drunken soldiers and whoever else wasn’t afraid to hang around volatile
levels of testosterone.
Tattoos were not Born in Trendy Neighborhoods
The Honolulu Tattoo district was designed to accommodate a time in
men’s lives when they drank heavily, paid for women, and imprinted
their biceps with pictures solid and resonant enough to last a
lifetime. Back then, Chinatown was the only place on the island where a
man could get a tattoo, creating fierce competition among the many
tattoo parlors.
Roving sailors weren’t looking at the nuances of shading and color,
they were seeking pictures worth showing off to their buddies back
home. Sailor Jerry built his business with bold designs that artfully
expressed the mind set of his clientele. When you look at Sailor
Jerry’s “flash”, it’s immediately apparent why he spawned the kind
of following that made it necessary to begin printing “The Original Sailor Jerry” on all his business cards.
When I first started tattooing, after hangin around
tattoo shops in the late 50s, I hung out with old Sailor Joe Simmons
who was about 80 years old then, he was a traveling tattooer, never
stayed too long in one spot, he was half blind, and he got me mixing
ink and making needles for him, as he could not see, a real classic
tattooer. Could write a book on this guy, he was funny, real tough as
well, people were scared of him.
There were several tattooers coming and going from Charlie Snows shop, down the
street, guys like the Liberty brothers, from Boston, Ted Liberty, later
known as Captain Ted, there was also Circus Leo, great old timers. Old
Sailor Joe was really the only one you could get to go into his shop
set down and talk, of course if he knew you could draw and could help
you were most welcome there. The other shops, you went in you got a
kick in the ass, and thrown out. But if ya came back 5 or 6 times you
got to stay. And I got to stay, got ass kicked, boot fucked, several
times, but got to stay. Watch, ask questions, go home and draw!
When I first started to tattoo for money, I started at Charlie’s
place, the flash there was old, some of it dated pre-1900 as well, done
by Fred Baldwin, and Charlie’s stuff was WW2 vintage. I always wanted
to improve on the look but still keep that neat old look, and being
highly influenced by Cap Coleman and Paul Rogers style, I tried to redo
the flash, to look Coleman style. Charlie would rag the hell out a me
for doin this, and it was several years about 1967 before I could
really do what I wanted to the flash without getting a kick in the bum.
Charlie’s stencils were cut on just about everything, old and
worn out. Most were cut on old windows from old ford cars. Which were
made from acetate. Some were cut on x-ray film which was blue color
plastic; you would put some charcoal
on them a little Vaseline on the skin to take the print, and hope to
hell it would be clear enough to see, which seldom was, and you could
never redo a stencil, the ol man would rag you out in front of the
whole shop. So you had to fake it. A quick look at the design on the
wall and go for it. Many times I
ended up free-handing the tattoo. You could never take a sheet of flash
and look at, that was a no no, they would say if ya gotta look at the
flash you’ll never be a tattooer.
Jerry.
Sailor Jerry
From Wikipedia.com
Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins (born 1911, died 1973) is considered the foremost American tattoo artist
of his time. He expanded the array of colors available by developing
his own safe pigments. He created needle formations that embedded
pigment with much less trauma to the skin, and he
was one of the first to utilize single-use needles and hospital-quality
sterilization. His attention to detail was so precise that the riggings
in his nautical tattoos were perfectly accurate. Artistically, his
influence stems from his union of the roguish attitude of the American
sailor with the mysticism and technical prowess of the Far East. He
maintained a close correspondence with Japanese tattoo masters during
his career. He regarded tattoos as the ultimate rebellion against “the
Squares”.
Sailor Jerry’s first studio was in Honolulu’s
Chinatown, then the only place on the island where tattoo studios were
located. He thrived in the hotbed of competition. His work was so
widely copied, he took to printing “The Original Sailor Jerry” on his
business cards.
A mischievous sense of humor is frequently on display in Sailor Jerry’s work, which included such impish designs as the “Aloha Chimpanzee”,
an image of a monkey bent over with its head facing out from between
its legs and “ALOHA” spelled out on its behind (with a red “O” that
also doubles as the chimpanzee’s anus). Yet he was an avid and vocal
proponent of professionalism and craft. In the tattoo world, he was
well-known for his frequent campaigns against middling practitioners,
whom he called “scab artists”. Conversely, he went out of his way to mentor those tattoo artists whose talents and
attitude he respected, among them tattoo legends Don Ed Hardy and Mike
Malone, to whom he entrusted his legacy of flash designs.
At age 19, Sailor Jerry enlisted in the US Navy. It was during his
subsequent travels at sea when he was exposed to the art and imagery of
Southeast Asia. He remained a sailor for his entire life thereafter.
Even during his career as tattoo artist, he worked as licensed skipper
of a large three-masted schooner, which he used to conduct tours of the
Hawaiian islands. Sailing and tattooing were only two of his
professional endeavors. He played saxophone in his own dance band and
for years, Sailor Jerry was the ultra conservative, frequently
controversial host of his own night talk show on KTRG radio, where he
broadcast as “Old Ironsides”. Among those things he railed against were
flashy tattoo artists such as Lyle Tuttle — and what he called “hippie
tattoo” culture. From his 20s to his late 50s, he stopped tattooing
entirely as a part of a disagreement with the IRS.
Legacy of Sailor Jerry
Sailor Jerry’s entrusted his name and his artwork to his two
proteges, Ed Hardy and Mike Malone, both of whom have become prominent
figures in their own right. Hardy, who turned down an MFT scholarship
to Yale in order to pursue tattooing, is known for his artistic
sophistication and large-scale tattoos. Malone, who also designs under
the name “Rollo Banks”, is known for his conceptual boldness and
distinctive designs. Hardy and Malone own the royalties to Sailor
Jerry’s tattoo flash. And it was Malone who took over Sailor Jerry’s
Honolulu tattoo parlor.
Sailor Jerry is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a military
cemetery located in Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu. His grave site is 124/Section T.
Sailor Jerry Ltd, Sailor Jerry art lives on
In 1999, Hardy and Malone partnered with a small independent
Philadelphia clothing company to to establish Sailor Jerry Ltd., which
produces clothing and an idiosyncratic collection of other items, such
as ash trays, high-top sneakers, playing cards, church keys and shot
glasses. An anti-sweatshop company, nearly all Sailor Jerry items are
produced in the United States and sold via the company’s web site or
from the Sailor Jerry Store on 38 N. 3rd Street in Philadelphia, which
frequently plays host to performances by independent musicians. Links
to bands
Sailor Jerry Ltd. produces a 92 proof spiced navy rum featuring a
quintessential Sailor Jerry hula girl on the label. It is based on the
kind of rums that sailors used to create by infusing on-board stocks of
rum with spices. Sailor Jerry rum is distilled in the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
Sailor Jerry’s letters and art are owned and managed by Sailor Jerry Ltd.
Here is a great vintage flash gallery with many of Sailor Jerry’s tattoo flash sheet images
Usable Piercings - Some BodMod and piercing enthusiasts are trying to turn eyeglasses from geeky to trendy with their line of extreme pierced eyeglasses. No frames sitting on your nose here, nope, they are attached and pierced through the nose... Inventive for sure
yep, If this ain't redneck, don't know what is... the title is true, now this happened a few years back, but this is the first I heard of it and the story is crazy. Some woman actually got a tattoo from a man that came to her door selling tattoos... and, she got really sick from the nutty and stupid ordeal.
Tattoo Artists 
Apatani Tribal body modification. These people are known for the huge nose plugs worn by woman and the stripes along the forehead and chin.
yep, If this ain't redneck, don't know what is... the title is true, now this happened a few years back, but this is the first I heard of it and the story is crazy. Some woman actually got a tattoo from a man that came to her door selling tattoos... and, she got really sick from the nutty and stupid ordeal.