Suggested Listening: Dropkick Murphys – Rose Tattoo; Van Halen – Tattoo; Sex Pistols – Friggin’ in the Riggin’
This is a very good, and serious question. One that requires you, the potential tattoo getee to probe yourself, not physically, but emotionally with a few deep, and penetrating questions.
But first let’s look at the meaning of the Anchor Tat
DOPE!
The anchor tattoo symbolizes a surface crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and until recently (circa 1927) they were all the rage for Sailors. Sometimes the symbol of an experienced mariner, the Anchor is one of the oldest forms of western tattoo.
As with bellbottom jeans coming back in the 90’s among teenage girls, retro is back, and so are Anchor tats. In short, they’re resurging (yaarg, from the bottom of the sea), but this time around in more vibrant colors. The trend, ironically, resurfaced on the Pacific coast of the United States.
Some speculate that the earliest forms of the anchor tat were to identify early Christians, as an anchor can pass for a cross in people with myopia and other mental diseases.
Later, and as mentioned previously, it became all the rage amongst European sailors. But as with any object it can mean whatever you damn well decide it to mean. For example, I could get a tat of an iPod nano, to remind me that I want to listen to music, so you can get an Anchor tat to remind you that you need stability in life. However, as it’s the 21st century, we’re going with the whole sailor thing.
Hey Sailor!
Now that we’ve covered the basic history of the Anchor tat, we will move onto the deep and roughly penetrating questions.
The first of these, “Is your name Popeye?”, if so, yes, get the tat. However, assuming that your parent’s weren’t total assholes and thankfully named you after something other than a dated cartoon character and a bad 1980’s movie, the choice whether or not to get an anchor tattoo on one’s forearm becomes considerably more complex.
A deeper question should revolve around your closeness and affinity to either of the following, the sea (and by this we also include Oceans, but not lakes) and your personal relationship with Anchors.
Best Halloween EVER!
If for example an Anchor raised you, or you professionally raise anchors, you could get a tat of an Anchor on your forearm. However, we would still very highly recommend against this. It’s like being a chef and getting a spatula tattoo. Or a taxi driver getting a taxi tattoo. See a pattern here? All of these options are really stupid. In fact, if you don’t have the credentials for a anchor tattoo and still get one, ask the artist if he’ll throw in a traditional Chinese logogram for ‘stupid’ free of cost for you.
On the other hand, if you’re a scurvy fightin’ mariner, you’ve faced the kraken, and find Moby Dick to be the most thrilling piece of literature ever written, then the answer is yes. Absolutely get an anchor tat on your forearm.
However, in the event that you do not meet any of the above requirements for an Anchor tattoo, you must ask yourself the following questions (No Googling allowed!).
- When The Pirates of the Caribbean was out, did I dress up like Johnny Depp on Halloween and think I looked awesome?
- Did I at any time in my life want to quit my day job, move to Somalia and become a pirate?
- Is Tortuga a real place, and if so, do I know where it is?
- Do I get the three-headed monkey joke? Look behind you, a Three Headed Monkey!
- Have I ever looked up to Guybrush Threepwood?
- Do I not associate myself with hipsters, but live in a totally avant-garde neighborhood in a city I’m not from that was recently dangerous and poor?
Love your tat mate.
If you answered yes to two or more of these questions then we highly recommend you do go out and get one, and once it’s on your body forever, you can totally hang out with Russell Crowe, and let’s be honest, it’ll look ab-fab with a pea coat.
However — and we at Blog Post Thursday truly hope you’re in the however category — we thoroughly believe that you’d be better off getting a tattoo of your fake dead Internet girlfriend, instead of an Anchor tatttoo’d on your forearm.
To learn what your tattoos say about you head over here.
This post topic was presented to Blog Post Thursday by the @HorneUltimatum. Follow him on Twitter if you will.
My heart is like a broken flower. This tat totally expresses how I feel.
f’that still doin’ it………….I like the flow of the writing. from history to bullsh#t that isn’t bullsh#t at all. Te’o nod was appropriate time stamp (tramp stamp? good place for an anchor) for our sorry days.