SO @matthewmercer INCLUDED APOTROPAIC TATTOOS AND I'M SCREAMING.

A small thread.

#CriticalRole

2. One of my favorite bits of Pirate Lore is the tattoos. Each of them had a meaning, but the purpose was very utilitarian - tattoos were used to identify bodies, even after bloated or waterlogged, after a shipwreck. You'd record your tattoos not unlike dental records.

3. Most of them served as talismans, though. For instance - pigs and chickens were transported in wooden crates, and these crates floated, so they would often survive being washed overboard.

So, you'd get one tattooed on each foot, in order to share their luck.

4. Anchors, whose symbolism is pretty clear, were thought to keep you steady - you also earned an anchor if you completed a voyage across the atlantic.

5. It also makes sense that a group of people who navigated for a living, and wouldn't see home for years, would concern themselves with finding a course.

Swallows (who famously migrate across the world and always find their way home) and Stars (again, clear) were popular.

5b. (it's also worth noting that the swallow and other migratory birds were often thought to carry a sailor's soul after death)

6. Mermaids, like the sea, were beautiful - and deadly. They were said to lure sailors onto rocks, to their death.

A tattoo of a mermaid protected you from their charms - and other such supernatural lures of the sea.

7. One of the most recognizable tattoos for a deck hand was "Hold Fast" across the knuckles - in a squall, holding tight to a waterlogged line might be the difference between life and death.

Any help they could get, they'd take.

8. Sailors would get tattoos commemorating their past - crossed cannons meant they had sailed for a regular navy. A dragon meant a voyage to China. A shellback showed they had crossed the equator.

9. Tattoos could also demonstrate the job. Clay, as the Botswain (bossun) would get crossed anchors between thumb and forefinger. A deck hand (not just a scut job, skilled work that needed doing) had rope around their wrist. A quartermaster would usually be a promoted deck hand.

10. Anyway, sailor tattoos are really cool, and there's a lot of history to them.

But I think I'll end on a different note - for Nott, as soon as she picked her job, this song's been playing in my head.

Cheers, all. #CriticalRole