He started his tattoo art career at a time when tattoos had no place in the lives of anyone other than dirty bikers and salty sailors and over time he was able to help bring it into the realms of the average world with the addition of sterilization of equipment and labelling those who didn´t adhere to the standards as “scabby”.

So much of his art was cantered around the pin up with her sexy legs and penchant for champagne and high rollers.  The addition of sailor elements meant that it appealed to a wide range of people and the accent on sexy, sassy women become his trademark.

In his final years, Sailor Jerry taught his style to a range of artists including Ed Hardy and Mike Malone who presently own the rights to his collection of vintage flash art gallery of drawings.  The iconic style of his art has also adorned a range of products including Sailor Jerry Rum which is a drink that will give you hairs on your chest.

While it is unclear of what the star may mean, everyone is clear that the first to emblaze it on their skins were sailors.  For many of the sailors, life on the high seas was treacherous and often fatal and with only the stars to guide them.  Navigating by means of the North Star, the only star not to move around the skies and a fixed reference point for all sailors, the stars in general were symbolic of making it home safely.  The nautical star became a symbol of finding your way in life and looked upon the tattoos as lucky charms.

Nowadays, people still hold the belief that nautical stars are a symbol of safe journeys and are popular with travellers as well as with those living on the ocean.

While most people see the nautical star as a five pointed design, there are those that feel that the four sided star is more relevant to nautical terms and reflects the directions of a ships compass.  This may be the case, but when looking at various old ship maps, you will find a lot five sided stars representing the compass points.

Flowers have a lot of different meanings, but essentially about birth and growth and they connect us with the planet, showing us the beauty that can be created as well as the wonderful scents that can be made.  Finally we can watch them wilt away, depicting the fleeting nature of beauty and the mortality of us all.

If you choose to have a flower tattoo, the symbolism would include the cycle of life, but the different types of flowers in themselves also have their own distinctive meanings.  White flowers signify purity, and red symbolises passion, yellow is friendship and compassion while pink is for adulation and unrequested love.

Rose are by far the most popular tattoo design and represents love in all its forms.  The rose tattoo however has a dark history with roses being tattooed onto those people who were sentenced to death in the 16th century.  If by chance they managed to get away, they would eternally be marked with the rose and whoever saw it would know of their crimes.

While the rose may be the flower to represent love in the West, the East depict this emotion through the lotus flower which also is symbolic of wealth, peace and all things good.

The life of a butterfly is where the symbolism starts and there are a few key stages to consider when thinking about the reason for your butterfly tattoo.  They start their lives as an egg which in turn hatches into a caterpillar or pupa which then encases itself in a chrysalis or cocoon to eventually emerge in all its beauty as a butterfly.

In Greek mythology, Psych, a Greek goddess had the wings of a butterfly and represented both the soul of the human as well as the butterfly.  For many people the simple transformation from caterpillar to butterfly reflects the same transformation we humans experience from our physical world to the spiritual one.

The tragedy of the butterfly tale is that once it comes to full bloom the beauty cannot last and two weeks after emerging from the cocoon, a butterfly will die.  This fragility may be one of the most powerful reasons for the popularity of this tattoo as we too feel our own mortality and the fleeting nature of beauty.

Although there are numerous designs available and thousands of different butterflies to get inspiration from, the advantage of this mystical creature is that as much as they are real, their beauty is what we perceive it to be and you may easily create your own design and color choices to suit your personality.

Crosses are found in all civilizations including the Aztec, Egyptians and Norse as well as the Greek and although the Christian cross is still very new in comparison to the crosses embossed in artwork from these ancient cultures, it too has a profound symbolism and is very important to the followers of the faith.  Religion is the primary reason that people decide to get a cross tattoo, but are definitely different crosses that you can choose and each has its own appeal.

The Latin cross is by far the most well known and recognized cross.  It consists of the cross post being placed two thirds of the way up the vertical post and is strongly connected to Christianity.  Other tattoos that are often portrayed with this type of cross include white doves which symbolise peace or placing a name beneath is often used for a memorial tattoo.

Celtic crosses are sometimes embossed over the Christian variety and are symbolic of no beginning and no end – the eternal nature of religion and life itself.  For many this endless circulating depicts the connection between the physical and the spiritual worlds.

For those whose heritage includes the Irish Isles, Wales or the Scottish Highlands, there is a rich traditional of crosses in all shapes and forms with the St Andrews cross donating an element of humility in the face of adversity.  St Andrew was crucified upside down believing that a mere mortal did not deserve to be hung in the same fashions as his saviour.

Most crosses denote an element of death and sacrifice as is the case with Christian crosses.

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Mermaids are a sign of fertility and of death.  The lovely maidens would draw the men of the ocean to their deaths, with beguiling looks and promises of passion.  For women it symbolises the perfect feminine with a hint of mystery, for men it is the weakness of the flesh and the wonder of the unknown.

The rose tattoos is a staple in the tattoo chronicles.  The rose is probably the most popular flower of all time and like the lotus in the east, the rose represents love and purity in the west.

The different colors of the rose depict different emotions with the yellow rose being the symbol of joy, white is for reverence and pink is considered the rose of sympathy and admiration.  The white rose was considered the rose of purity in medieval times and was such given to ladies who had not yet lost their virginity.  The red rose is the rose of love and covers all aspects of love from romantic gestures to sacred love of family and faith.