Tattoos in the Merchant Marine

Okay Junior. Skin color is not a choice. Tatoos are a choice. Some people make poor choices. If you want to be one of them, expect no support from me. Basic rule of thumb: nothing above the collar and nothing below the shirt sleeve.
I have four tatoos. One on my bicep tricep region of a sailing ship superimposed on a fouled anchor. Two on my forearms. One is a compass rose, the other is a heart pierced by an anchor. One on my calf of the pig. I never got around to getting the rooster and I didn’t have the balls or lack of sense to get them on my feet.
I have sailed with guys who had props or anchors on their butts. I had a roommate who had a tat of a bluebird pulling a worm out of the crack of his ass. The funniest tat I ever saw was in a bar in St. Pete, FL. I told the story of my roommate with the bluebird and this local guy who everyone called Shakey Pete said, “That ain’t funny, this is funny”. He then pulled his pants down and bent over showing us his tatoo. Yogi Bear was on one cheek bent over looking at his crack. The other cheek had the words,"Hey Boo Boo! You in there?"
Now that was funny!

[QUOTE=RichMadden;57546] As for your 2nd question, why are you spending 2 years at a community college? The normal curriculum at one of the state maritime colleges/academies is doable in the 4 years necessary. The two years you spend waiting to get into the workforce is going to cost you between $100000 and $150000 in additional tuition and lost wages. So, the question to you is, “Why?”[/QUOTE]

Look at the speelink amd the grammer in the furst poast. that shuld bee an indikaton as to why 2 yrs @ prepskool iz necc.

But I am NOT being disrespectful. My grades weren’t good enough to even get accepted into college. Sometimes we have to MAKE our paths however it is accomplished.

Single Wild Ugly(?) Guy: You are the one that has to figure this out. No one else can make your mind up for you. If this is what you want go for it!

The decision of which department to go into should not be based on money but on what you want to do. The money says be an engineer. They are always in demand and there are more shore side jobs available to them. You need to pick the path you will be happy doing.

If being down in a 100° + engine room for hours on end and never seeing the sun sounds appealing then go for it.

If you like the sound of standing a bridge watch staring at an empty ocean fighting boredom for hours on end then do that.

Gheesh! Is our career that bad? I hope you aren’t recruiting for the industry. :slight_smile:

rotflmao!!!

[QUOTE=water;57569] The only normal people are the ones you do not know very well. [/QUOTE]

Or the ones who do not know YOU…yet.

[QUOTE=seadog6608;57548]Okay Junior. Skin color is not a choice. Tatoos are a choice. Some people make poor choices. If you want to be one of them, expect no support from me. Basic rule of thumb: nothing above the collar and nothing below the shirt sleeve.
I have four tatoos. One on my bicep tricep region of a sailing ship superimposed on a fouled anchor. Two on my forearms. One is a compass rose, the other is a heart pierced by an anchor. One on my calf of the pig. I never got around to getting the rooster and I didn’t have the balls or lack of sense to get them on my feet.
I have sailed with guys who had props or anchors on their butts. I had a roommate who had a tat of a bluebird pulling a worm out of the crack of his ass. The funniest tat I ever saw was in a bar in St. Pete, FL. I told the story of my roommate with the bluebird and this local guy who everyone called Shakey Pete said, “That ain’t funny, this is funny”. He then pulled his pants down and bent over showing us his tatoo. Yogi Bear was on one cheek bent over looking at his crack. The other cheek had the words,"Hey Boo Boo! You in there?"
Now that was funny![/QUOTE]
I didn’t ask what kind, or how many tattoos you had. If you want to tell people about all the tattoos you have, start a new thread called “Look at me”. For the skin color thing, I was saying this to get my point across, that it’s essentially the same as having different skin color. As long as it’s not offensive to other people, I don’t see why it would be a problem. If you’re going to go off on me about how an independent company has the right to higher who ever they desire, well your right and I don’t want to hear it. First off, I’m not looking to get your approval or support, second what side are you on?
If you are going to tell me, “well you talked about your tattoos”. That’s because I wanted to tell people you can hide all mine and no one would find them offensive. For instance, if I had a marine tattoo that you would have to earn through positioning.
I just ask a simple question

cappy208
thank you, you helped the most

If you are thin-skinned enough to be bothered by seadog6608’s post, then DO NOT take to the sea as a career.

Also, I think you should refer to post #14.
Sure sounds like he meant you.

[QUOTE=Jr. Captain;57630]I didn’t ask what kind, or how many tattoos you had. If you want to tell people about all the tattoos you have, start a new thread called “Look at me”. For the skin color thing, I was saying this to get my point across, that it’s essentially the same as having different skin color. As long as it’s not offensive to other people, I don’t see why it would be a problem. If you’re going to go off on me about how an independent company has the right to higher who ever they desire, well your right and I don’t want to hear it. First off, I’m not looking to get your approval or support, second what side are you on?
If you are going to tell me, “well you talked about your tattoos”. That’s because I wanted to tell people you can hide all mine and no one would find them offensive. For instance, if I had a marine tattoo that you would have to earn through positioning.
I just ask a simple question[/QUOTE]

In the 10 Commandments of Forum Posting, #1 is “Thou shalt not flame.” The rationale (not that the original 10 had any footnotes) is that 1. You don’t really know who the guy is at the other end, 2. You never know who you are going to be working for/with in the future and 3. The comments being made are by highly qualified people in the maritime industry to whom YOU posed questions.

Personally, comparing the artwork (You have called it art to someone, correct?) you have had done on your skin to the skin color someone has no choice about and then crying discrimination based on your choice of artistry is offensive. To be fair, I discussed this with our security team (who are mostly tatted up) and they would tend to err on the side of being able to cover up any ink.

Advice? More time on schooling issues, less time on the ancillary ones.

Hey junior. You don’t need my approval. Of course, you may not get a job either if you get ink all over the place and continue to have an attitude towards your superiors.

[QUOTE=Jr. Captain;57522]hey I’m new to all of this so I have lots of questions
First things first I wanna know if tattoos on the top of the hand are alright ? all the tattoos I have are nautical and not any that would offend anyone. Just a bunch of ocean stuff… the only ones I have that do mean anything are the pig and chicken in my arm pits. The one that I wanna put on my hand would be a rose. and maybe on the other a girl wearing a sailor hate . and yes I do have a full sleeve and the feet done and stomach, legs " I have a lot" but right now they all can be covered
My other question
I’m going to school at a community college getting all my pre- req done “I have to go for 2 years” and then going to California Maritime Ac for 4 years. all together 6 years of school and I just started " Im 23" I wanna go for transportation, cus I think it might pay the best… do you think this might be the best way to go ? And yeas I am 100% sure this is what I wanna do. I love the ocean, I surf every day and a lot of my family did fish in Alaska back in the day.

I hope someone can help
Thank you
and I hope no one gets made for me bumping this post that was started in 2009[/QUOTE]

dont go to cal maritime, its a joke. i have tattoos from stem to stern but none on the hands and neck. id wait til after school to mess with that but thats just me.

No tattoos in the maritime industry? What’s next? No boozing ashore? No cat-houses? The industry is being taken over by pansies and admirals.

Tattoos!! I got them and they haven’t affect me any. As long as you do your job professionally you won’t have a problem!

These days it isn’t how well you do your job but how well you appear to be doing your job. It must be a class in the modern maritime academy; I see more pretty-boy mates with porcelain skin and shiny shoes now than I remember in the past.

Get the tatts.

[QUOTE=seadog6608;57652]Hey junior. You don’t need my approval. Of course, you may not get a job either if you get ink all over the place and continue to have an attitude towards your superiors.[/QUOTE]
This is getting stupid, I’m nice until someone tries to dog on me. So I did what anyone would have done and stood up for myself, but I just wanted to know about tattoos. I did want to go into engineering at first, but the pay sounded terrible. It still is my first choice, but I would like to get some feedback on Tattoos in engineering also. I been running a VW shop with my dad since I was a kid, I do auto cross and my dad does 8s. I built a 1977 rabbit my self with a 16v top 2.0, Turbo blah blah blah " I could fill this whole page with what I have done to it. So naturally I would want to go into the engineering, It just sounds like pay sucks and I don’t wanna go to school just to make as much as I can make at my dads shop. If someone could answer me about tattoos in engineering that would be awesome.

I agree! I know a lot of Mates that are scared to get dirty!!

On tug boats engineers make decent money but not captain level. In real shipping I believe engineers make more than their deck equivalent. And there are many more (high paying) shore side jobs for engineers. That is probably part of why there is so much demand for them on vessels. When the economy sucks and no one is hiring deck officers, people still hire engineers. Better money and job security. If you like engineering, definitely do it.

[QUOTE=Jr. Captain;57670]This is getting stupid …

So naturally I would want to go into the engineering, It just sounds like pay sucks …

… If someone could answer me about tattoos in engineering that would be awesome.[/QUOTE]

You are right on count #1

You have been listening to people who don’t know what they are talking about and have probably never seen an engineer’s pay check.

People who think tattoos are delightful or disgusting will think the same if they are on a mate or an engineer. The only ink that really matters is on a paycheck.

“I’m nice until someone tries to dog on me. So I did what anyone would have done and stood up for myself”

Wrong answer…as a greenhand, deck or Engine dept, you WILL get dogged on. Lots and lots of it. It’s part of the culture, to see how you handle it.

As a greenhand the only acceptable answer is: “Aye,aye…will do”, and you had better do your best.
Stand up for yourself and you’ll be standing on the dock.

We ALL paid our dues and earned our stripes.
Pay yours and earn a good reputation and nobody will give a shit about any ink.

Engineer pay is generally very good.