The home-base of my Rose of Westhaven campaign is a small(ish) port-town called Porthcrawl, recently we had a game where most of the people in the town had turned up to a funeral, in thinking about what the various inhabitants would look like I was scrolling through various pictures on Google Image search and noticed that a lot of the pirate/sailor types sported tattoos. I know from other reading and an interest in things piratical that lead to me creating the Fate game Storm & Sail with Lloyd Gyan (available from Drivethru RPG) that such tattoos were very common amongst sailors and that they had different meanings.
After a bit of reading I concocted the table below to randomly roll tattoos for whatever scurvy sea-dogs might be wandering the port, roll 1D20 on the chart to see what tattoo that scurvy buccaneer who’s eyeing your rum is sporting:
| No. | Description | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Woman | Serving as a reminder of loves left behind for a life at sea. |
| 2 | Anchor | The anchor tattoo represents stability and was given to represent that the sailor had traversed a particularly dangerous sea or ocean. Particularly sentimental sailors might have the name of a loved one added to the tattoo, giving them a reason to return home safely. |
| 3 | Bottle | Sailors were known for their love of drink so it was not uncommon to see this tattoo. |
| 4 | Compass Rose | Getting lost was one of the many potential dangers at sea, this tattoo was thought to ward against it. |
| 5 | Cross Anchors | Having such a tattoo marked you out as being a Boatswain Mate. |
| 6 | Crossed Guns or Cannons | Crossed guns indicate a member of the infantry army whilst cannons refer to the navy. |
| 7 | Cutlass | Some sailors would get this tattoo after dispatching a noteworthy foe in single combat. |
| 8 | Dagger Through a Swallow | Symbollising a lost comrade. |
| 9 | Dice | A tattoo often sported by risk-takers and gamblers. |
| 10 | Dragon | The seaman has survived an attack where their ship was set on fire and/or the powder exploded. |
| 11 | Fully Rigged Ship | Often awarded to mark sailing around a particularly dangerous cape. |
| 12 | Harpoon | Identifies you as part of a fishing fleet. |
| 13 | Hold Fast | The words hold fast mean holding onto the lines in bad weather to prevent being washed overboard, it is believed these words in a tattoo served as both reminder and a lucky charm in these circumstances. |
| 14 | Neptune | Given to a sailor who has successfully sailed both hemispheres of the world. |
| 15 | Pig and Rooster | Most often tattooed on the feet, these animals symbollised surviving a ship-wreck, since such animals would often wash ashore in cages following a shipwreck. |
| 16 | Rope | A rope around the wrist is a mark of being a deckhand. |
| 17 | Shark | This tattoo signifies having survived attack by some great beast of the ocean. |
| 18 | Ship with Wind Filling the Sails | This tattoo was believed to help a sailor's ship avoid getting becalmed on a windless sea. |
| 19 | Skull & Bones | A sailor with this tattoo marks themselves as having taken up a life of piracy, it is thought to have originated from brands once used to mark captured pirates. |
| 20 | Swallow | Each swallow tattoo represents 5000 nautical miles travelled (about 5754 land miles). |