Why do all the new Rockabilly Girls have tattoos of swallows nautical stars and cherries?

Answer 1

Rockabilly Girls' Tattoos

Simply, it's right for the era. Tattoo imagery has changed a great deal over the last couple of decades, designs such as those you mentioned were fairly popular during that time period as they were simple to do, looked good and held up well in the long run. A good source for the imagery is anything to do with Sailor Jerry - his work is becoming trendy now and is readily available in stores and online (also would like to note that within certain groups all of those designs had meanings as well, most of which are completely ignored today).

Here are more opinions and answers from other FAQ Farmers:

• The idea of Rockabilly held a lot of significance in the Old Sailor Jerry days. More so though, I believe they think they are sailor girls. The swallows are from a few meanings for sailors, being close to home when you see swallows off the coast and they got them for every 2000 miles at sea.

• Tattoos are a bad idea, if it's just a trend. I suspect a high percentage of the whoevers with "rockabilly" tattoos are just being trendy or to fit in. Either way, the rockabilly tattoos look WAY the hell better than tribal ones or barbed wire and the ones who get it for real (NOT trendy) rock.

• I agree with the other answers 100%, but I also got mine because of Psalm 102:7. "You'll never find a sparrow alone except for when in mourning or it's lost its way" which is where I'm at in my life.

• I don't agree with any of that. Swallows, cherries, and nautical symbols are trends because they are the "old school" style of tattoos. Since there are people who choose the rockabilly lifestyle, they choose tattoos that are old school because rockabilly is old school. It's difficult for people to understand if they don't follow the culture. People who get old school tats, yet have no idea of the stories or lore behind them are ridiculous.
• i dig the punk and rockabilly scene, and i do see a lot of people with the swallows tattoos, and yeah i have them myself, not because of the scene, but because my family's name is swallows, i love my family and i love my ink.
• Simply: It's trendy. In the 90's everyone was getting barbed wire armbands and butterflies on their ankles. Now everyone is getting cupcake tattoos and retro-style anchors/swallows/nautical stars. You can try to attach some sort of meaning to it but it all comes down to the current trends.