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Channel Your Inner Sailor With Free Tattoo This Weekend

By Nicole Levy | May 26, 2016 2:56pm | Updated on May 26, 2016 5:11pm
 Matt Marcus inking a tattoo at the Sailor Jerry Fleet Week kickoff party Wednesday evening.
Matt Marcus inking a tattoo at the Sailor Jerry Fleet Week kickoff party Wednesday evening.
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Sailor Jerry

You could celebrate Fleet Week and our country's servicemen at sea by touring a U.S. Navy ship, watching sailors in action or partying with them.

Or you could do what any sailor would: score some free ink because YOLO.

New Yorkers and service members can sign up for complimentary tattoos from Three Kings Tattoo at a space in Hell's Kitchen Friday and Saturday. 

The five nautical-themed designs available — a shark, anchor, swallow, nautical star and pair of cherries — are all creations of Norman Keith Collins, a.k.a. Sailor Jerry Collins, an influential American tattoo artist who served as a Merchant Marine in World War II. 

tattoos

You can choose from the five tattoo designs above (Credit: Sailor Jerry)

"You're supposed to get a swallow after you've traveled a certain amount of miles, once you'd spent three to 5,000 miles on the sea," Three Kings Tattoo co-owner and artist Matt Marcus said of the bird's symbolism.

The free ink provided by Marcus and his partner Alex McWatt is part of a Fleet Week promotion by Sailor Jerry, the clothing company that owns Collins' tattoo designs and sells spiced rum.

The artists will be tattooing arms and legs with designs 3 to 5 inches in diameter, said Marcus, whose business has locations in Greenpoint and the East Village. This isn't the first time Three Kings is offering its services at a Sailor Jerry event.

The tattoos are free, but they'll likely go to the first 30 to 50 people who sign up on Friday and Saturday, when Marcus and McWatt set up shop at 348 West 44th St. at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. respectively.

Who usually takes advantage of a tattoo giveaway?

"I think it’s people who have tattoos and then it’s people who get caught up in the excitement of being just somewhere place where free tattoos are being offered," Marcus said.