About Sailor Jerry
Sailor Jerry was born Norman Collins, but he chose to define himself in his own way. He was not born to live in the middle, and he knew it. Back in the 1920s, when he came of age, tattoos were an expression of the emerging American counterculture. It's a sign of not following the mainstream -- choosing to live offline. When he finally arrived in Chicago, two things changed his life. First, he dated local tattoo legend Gib 'Tatts' Thomas, who taught him to use the machine. The second was joining the navy. The United States navy is a place where a young man who once traveled across the country by freight train can up the ante on his adventures and his adventures across the ocean.Sailor Jerryeventually earned master's degrees in various ships.