My youngest daughter (19) has come home for the weekend on her first break since joining the Navy.....sporting a couple of new tatoos.

Never had one, never wanted one but recently have been starting to think I would like a few traditional sailors tatoos. Must be a post midlife crisis. The one I would like most would be the hardest to earn. A fully rigged tallship. Anyone got one of those or others that commorate an event or achievement.

Best Navy tattoo I saw was flames coming out of a bloke's rear end with an angel on one cheek with a fire extinguisher and a devil on the other cheek shovelling coal back in.

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cammd said..
The one I would like most would be the hardest to earn. A fully rigged tallship.

It's your body cammd. You don't have to earn a tattoo, you just need to pay for it.. When caucasians get Japanese coy or polynesian royalty marks and say how much it means to them, then tradition no longer means anything.

That said, I have been toying with the idea of a swallow for 5000 nm sailed

Just get a boat tattooed on your slack willy, when you want a bigger boat.......well you know what to do.

The tattoos I see on the arms of folks these days reminds me of when I use to preg test cattle

The best (worst) Navy tattoo I ever saw was a Submariner who had exhaust pipes tattooed out his ears and flames going down his back. He also had "I like fish and chips" written on his forehead but was made to get that removed - which was only partially successful.

The best tatt that I have seen was on a workmates butt cheek, the stamp applied to beef, grade A aussie beef.

Popeye has the best tattoo.