Today in motorcycle history, June 12, 1973

                                     

                                                                                   

                                        

  Norman Keith "Sailor Jerry" Collins dies. 

 

  He may not have even owned a bike, but there is no denying the mark he left (no pun intended) on hundred's, if not thousand's, of bikers world-wide. 

  Norman Collins was born on January 14, 1911 in Reno, Nevada, but his family moved shortly afterwards to Northern California.  Legend has it that as a child he hopped freight trains across the country and learned the old "needle in hand" tattooing from a man named "Big Mike" from Palmer, Alaska.  In 1928 he met Tatts Thomas from Chicago who taught him how to use an electric tattoo machine which he then practiced on drunks brought in from skid row.  

  In 1930 Norman enlisted in the United States Navy.  During his subsequent travels at sea he was exposed to the art and imagery of Southeast Asia.  He fell in love with the art, the sea and Hawaii.   Collins remained a sailor for his entire life thereafter.  Even during his career as a tattoo artist he worked as a licensed skipper of a large three-masted schooner, on which he conducted tours of the Hawaiian islands.

  Sailor Jerry's last studio was in Honolulu's Chinatown, then the only place on the island where tattoo studios were located.  His work was so widely copied, he took to printing "The Original Sailor Jerry" on his business cards.