rik1471

A swallow on the neck, or back of hand?

stevencotton

I've seen that, on a programme on Discovery. It's some kind of religious cult, and the person that sees the tattoo is instantly cursed.

Steve.

dogmaul

it tends to be a prison tattoo could be wrong tho

rik1471

stevencotton: your funny.

stevencotton

It's Monday morning, I'm warming myself up

Steve.

RichB

Maybe it is the opposite of someone who has 'spit' the dog tatooed somewhere.... More commonly found on women I am led to believe....

Funkii Munkii

I always thought it was a swallow and it had to do with the merchant navy, could be wrong??

Dave

Burt

Seamen and Swallow see the connection

Dark Blue Mark

I thought it was a thieving / criminal thing...

MB

V5

I'd heard from a guy I knew in the Army that it meant they had "fast hands" ie they were a good boxer. No idea if it's true, mind!

Rik, if you know someone with them, mebbe you could insult him and see how many punches he lands per second?

Alas

Been a seaman, also a boxer and had not heard of this. Seamen get tattoos when thet are pLssed and can end up with anything that seemed smart at the time. I had 2 anchors tattooed on my legs. What a ****. Mind you, that was after about 12 bottles of Tiger beer and I was 16 at the time.
One of our mates got his girlfriends name tattooed on his neck - where a necklace would hang. Yes he got a Dear John letter about a month later.
Alasdair

Freak

A swallow is to signify youve done 'bird' (been in prison) according to some unsavoury characters i know...

One per visit for some peeps.

MarkO

I still remember the story in the paper about the bloke who had "Man U - league champions 1989" (or whatever year) tattood before the season ended. A freak mathematical result ended up with them coming second.

fatherpierre

I think it was a borstall (spl) thing. My late Father had a swallow on his hand and he did a bit of shovel in borstall and beyond.