Tattoos have hit a lot of the mainstream these days. Almost every hipster with a tech job is walking around covered head to toe in bad stick and poke tats that they’ll probably regret one day. But way back when, getting ink was a lot less common. It was reserved for Japanese mafiosos, bikers and particularly sailors in the navy.

The tradition of getting nautical ink was started when U.S. and British navy men observed Polynesian sailors and admired their insanely cool traditional tattoos. They then formed their own culture around it, and by the 1940s, every guy on a ship looked like a canvas of masculine artistry. The vintage photos of these guys are some of the coolest throwback snapshots ever, and they make every liberal arts kid with a sleeve look like the pathetic land dwellers that they are.