The Sailor's Grave

I was intrigued by the name of this tattoo studio on Mutley Plain, near the city centre.

Google revealed that there are hundreds bearing this name, all over the world.

But why?

Perhaps this is the reason.

"One of the most poignant of this type of tattoo was a full-back image of a ship in full sail, 

captioned homeward bound. 

A counterpoint to this design was an image of a sinking ship, with the inscription sailor’s grave. 

This seemingly morbid design might be tattooed as a simple statement of the perilous life of the mariner and his probable fate, or worn in a kind of reverse psychology, as a talisman warding off just such an unhappy end.”

This suggestion comes from

Marina Kastan in her fascinating study 

Wearing Your Dreams: 

Image and Imagination in the American Tattoo 

which can be found here.