Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Open water swimmers can be expressive in a variety of ways: verbally or artistically. Some view their skin as part of that public expression. Darren Miller celebrates his tough Tsugaru Channel crossing, part of his Oceans Seven success, with a tattoo on his forearm above. Other examples from open water swimmers around the world are shown below.

Around the beaches from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, from the shorelines of California to Copacabana, in pools from Melbourne to Montreal, many swimmers pride themselves on a variety of tattoos on their bodies. Many swimmers have marine themes to their tattoos.  Some of them incorporate Chinese and Japanese characters in their tattoos. What do some of these characters mean? Here is a short list:

Adjectives
1. 速 – fast
2. 長 – long
3. 超 – a lot or much
4. 強 – tough
5. 力 – powerful

Marine Creatures
1. 鮫 – shark
2. 鯨 – whale
3. 海豚 – dolphin
4. 亀 – turtle

Other Objects
1. 人魚 – mermaid
2. 虹 – rainbow
3. 珊瑚礁 – coral reef
4. 波 – waves
5. 津波 – tidal wave (tsunami)
6. 貝殻 – seashell
7. 海 – ocean
8. 海岸 – beach

Verbs
1. 水泳 – swimming
2. 遠泳 – long distance swimming
3. マラソンスイミング- marathon swimming
3. バタフライ – butterfly
4. 背泳 – backstroke
5. 平泳 – breaststroke

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