Sailor Jerry
Sailor Jerry ( Real name: Norman Keith Collins) ( born January 14, 1911 in Reno (Nevada ), † 12 June 1973) was an American tattoo artist, teacher of Don Ed Hardy and Mike Malone.
Life
Collins was born on January 14, 1911 in Reno ( Nevada). He is considered America's leading tattoo artists of his time. "Before Sailor Jerry" and "After Sailor Jerry": There the tattoo craft is divided even in the eras " BSJ " and " ASJ ". Jerry Collins was there more for the tattoo art on than any other tattoo artist. He learned the tattooing of "Big Mike" from Palmer, Alaska and Gib " Tatts " Thomas from Chicago. At the age of 19 years, Collins joined the United States Navy. Sailor Jerry remained a sailor his whole life. Artistically he was so influenced on one hand by his soldierly attitude as an American sailor and on the other by the mystique and the technical skills of the Far East. Even during his career as a tattoo artist, he worked as a licensed skipper of a large three-masted schooner on which he undertook tours of the Hawaiian Islands.
Collins expands the range of colors by developing their own pigments. He developed needle formations that earned the embedded pigments with less risk of injury to the skin and used as one of the first tattoo disposable needles and sterilization devices. Tattoos he regarded as the ultimate rebellion. In his studio in Honolulu he refined the Fette line - style, which he had learned from Horihide in Japan. Collins taught Ed Hardy and Mike Malone tattooing.
Norman Collins is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a military cemetery in Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu. Mike Malone took over Sailor Jerry's Tattostudio after his death.
Sailor Jerry Ltd..
In 1999, Hardy and Malone founded the Sailor Jerry Ltd.. and produced a collection of clothing and other items such as ash trays, sneakers, playing cards, keys and shot glasses.
Sailor Jerry Ltd.. produced a 46 percent Navy Rum with a designed by Sailor Jerry hula girl on the label. An empty bottle more he designed pin -up girls are visible on the inside of the label. The rum is distilled in the Virgin Islands.