American Traditional tattoos signify patriotism. In the era of war, sailors respected nationalism. Importantly, it displayed teamwork amongst the sailors who served the U.S and died for the love of their country. People started showing respect and support by getting patriotic tattoos, as they exhibited both unity and devotion to the soldiers.
American traditional tattoo designs feature thick black shapes and a restricted color palette, with almost no shading. The minimal color range usually includes red, yellow, black, green and purple. Moreover, the traditional American tattoos have less details and flawless precision.
The traditional American ink consists of skulls, roses, eagles, blades, hearts, sailors, mermaids, anchors, ships, the American flag, swallows and women. Although, the American Traditional tattoos are mostly just two-dimensional pictures and not multi-layered designs, the uniqueness of these tattoos is its simplicity and preciseness.
Being simple, these tattoos are easy and quick to create. The American traditional tattoos are mostly those styles and designs that are found in a tattoo artist’s display or reference books. One of the most popular old school tattoo artists is Norman Keith Collins, also known as “Sailor Jerry“.
We have compiled this article to present top 5 American Traditional Tattoo Designs.
1. Traditional Heart Tattoos
Being the most common symbol of passion, heart tattoos portray love. Although, heart tattoos have several meanings. Every heart tattoo holds a unique place and significance to the wearer. In early times, a traditional heart tattoo showed that the person wearing the tattoo had traveled the world. Similarly, American Traditional Heart Tattoos symbolized freedom, unity and strength.
2. Traditional Nautical Tattoos
Nautical tattoos refer to the kind of tattoos which were traditionally preferred by sailors. These tattoos were commonly worn by sailors, displaying pictures of swallows, anchors, ships, compasses and mermaids.
3. Traditional Rose Tattoos
Rose tattoos symbolize true and pure love. Traditional Rose Tattoos signify never-ending hope of meeting your beloved again.
4. Traditional Skull Tattoos
Traditional skull tattoos are one of the most popular tattoos. These tattoos mostly represent victory and death. Skull tattoos also mean that an individual has acknowledged their mortality. Another representation of these American traditional skull tattoos is that they are a reminder of the fact that everyone has to die one day, so they should live their lives to the fullest.
5. Traditional pin up girl tattoos
Pin up girl tattoos displayed an ideal image of a woman. While sailors were on the sea, they missed the company of a woman. Since they had no women on the ship, they would get traditional pin up girl tattoos, just to look at them when they wished to accompany a woman.
