I have noticed recently that there are tons of Rockabilly girls getting some great tattoo work done. They are getting themes like swallow tattoos, or nautical stars, and even cherries. These are all very classic and great looking tattoo designs. Many of them will work wonderful in combination with each other. For example a large chest piece tattoo design that incorporates two swallows on either side of a sacred heart with some nautical star tattoos to round out the design!
These work so well and are becoming so popular among this group of rockabilly women because they hark back to the time period of the 1950s and especially have the look and feel of Sailor Jerry type of tattoo designs.
This trend of course started with the now very popular West Coast tattoo style that at it's heart takes older tattoo designs and recolors them with new vibrant splashes of brightly colored ink. So taking old Sailor Jerry tattoo designs and redoing them with new bright ink colors not only has a great retro look and theme but also are becoming very popular tattoo designs for women.
All three of these designs have great symbolism behind them also. Sailors are a very superstitious lot by nature and would do anything to come home alive. They often would look for signs or clues to help them navigate their way home. Over the years these signs have turned into symbols for luck, safe travel, and returning home! For example the swallow tattoo is a symbol for returning home safely. Swallow birds can not fly very far from land and so when a sailor at sea spots a swallow bird he knows that land is close by and therefore home. So the swallow and therefore the swallow tattoo is a symbolism for returning home.
Stars were also used frequently by sailors to navigate their way home and a nautical star is a symbol of this.