Traditional Hand Tattoos

Traditionally highly visible placements on the body such as the neck, face and hands were reserved until a person had run out of room elsewhere on the body. In the past, having highly visible tattoos were associated with criminality, gang membership and would jeopardise the person's ability to move forward or up within society, limiting their chances of employment, opening them up to judgement from others etc. Having your hands tattooed was seen as a lifelong commitment to a nefarious lifestyle.

While this view has been relaxed as time has passed, some artists are still hesitant to tattoo a persons hands if they are not already heavily tattooed due to the social ramifications.

One of the earliest and most popular examples of traditional hand tattoos are from sailors getting pairs of swallows done on their hands, placed between the thumb and index finger. Swallows had a few meanings to sailors. They could indicate the number of miles that person had sailed and therefore that they are highly experienced. The swallow also returns home every year to mate and nest so would guarantee the sailor a safe journey and return. There was also the belief that if the man drowned, the swallows would take his soul to heaven.

In England, swallows on the hands were also a sign that a man was "hard" and a good fighter with his fists accomplished at "flying".
Hand tattoos are commonly done in pairs, with each one complimenting the other and are usually done by the same artist. Eg. animal heads, anchor and ship, flowers.