Shellback turtle
A sailor’s tattoo for crossing the equator. A sailor who has crossed the line and been initiated by “King Neptune” is a shellback, and the turtle says so.
Meaning
The Naval History and Heritage Command’s primer says the shellback turtle “indicates that a Sailor has crossed the equator”, and that crossing the line is also marked by other designs: the coordinates drawn fancifully, King Neptune, mermaids. Royal Museums Greenwich gives the same meaning. Sailors in today’s US Navy still get it: aboard USS Gerald R. Ford in 2017, Chief Warrant Officer Scott Bryson said crossing the equator usually results in tattoos of “Davey Jones, King Neptune, or turtle shells”, which pay homage to the sea and to the sailors who began the tradition.
Origin and history
The tattoo records a ceremony. When a ship crosses the equator, the Navy’s historians write, “Pollywogs”, sailors who have not crossed it before, are initiated and become “Shellbacks”, fit subjects of King Neptune, in what they call the granddaddy of all seagoing ceremonies. A Library of Congress account, drawing on interviews in its Veterans History Project, describes the pollywogs being put through tasks, teasing and trials before they are brought before King Neptune, or Neptunus Rex, and his court; afterwards each new shellback receives a large certificate and a small identification card. The folklorist Keith Richardson argues that the ceremony’s main elements were in place by the 1500s. The Royal Australian Navy adopted it after its first voyage from England to Australia in 1913.
A Navy photograph of February 1945 shows Seaman Third Class Floyd H. Scharp on the signal bridge of USS Alaska, his crossing-the-line tattoo on his arm.
Golden, emerald and horned shellbacks
Some crossings earn a grander title. The Navy’s historians record that sailors who cross the equator and the 180th meridian at the same time become Golden Shellbacks, and that the submarine USS Capitaine did it underwater in 1965; a sailor who rounds Cape Horn and crosses the equator on one voyage is a Horned Shellback. The Royal Australian Navy adds emerald shellbacks, rarer still, who have crossed the equator at the prime meridian in the Gulf of Guinea. Crossing the International Date Line has its own tattoo, the golden Dragon.
The ceremony then and now
Veterans interviewed by the Library of Congress remember the old ceremonies as rough. Edmund Klepps, who served in the Pacific in the Second World War, said, “In those days, it was really mean.” A Navy statement of 1997 called hazing that is degrading, embarrassing or injurious unprofessional and illegal, and said crossing-the-line ceremonies are only meant to celebrate and recognise sailors’ achievements.
Read next
- Next in Traditional tattoo motifsDragonA sailor’s tattoo for service in China. In the US Navy before the Second World War a dragon usually meant a tour with the Asiatic Fleet; later it stood for any service in the western Pacific.
- The same shape in Adinkra symbolsBese SakaBese Saka, a bunch of kola nuts, is the adinkra symbol of affluence, abundance and unity.
See also
Swallow, Anchor, Full-rigged ship, Nautical star, Hold fast, Pig and rooster.
Sources
- Sailors’ Tattoos: A Basic Primer, Heritage: customs and traditions, published 4 December 2024 (Internet Archive copy, 29 January 2026), Naval History and Heritage Command (U.S. Navy), Some Traditional Sailors’ Tattoos: Shellback turtle; photo 80-G-K-3038
- Fascinating facts about tattoos, Stories: topics, Royal Museums Greenwich (National Maritime Museum), 10 interesting facts about tattoos
- Of Swallows, Shellbacks, & Sweethearts, by Lt. Col. Patrick Chaisson, MOAA magazine, October 2023: on “Marked by the Sea: Tattoos in the U.S. Navy” at the National Museum of the American Sailor, Great Lakes, Illinois, Military Officers Association of America, opening
- Naval Ink, by Petty Officer 3rd Class Sean Elliott, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) public affairs, 9 August 2017, Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (U.S. Navy), story text
- Crossing the Line, Plank Owner, and Other Unofficial Certificates Acquired by Naval Personnel, Heritage: customs and traditions (Internet Archive copy, 2026), Naval History and Heritage Command (U.S. Navy), introduction
- Happy Birthday, Navy! and Crossing the Line Ceremonies, Folklife Today blog, Veterans History Project, October 2014, Library of Congress, blog text
- Crossing the line, About the Navy: history, customs and traditions, Royal Australian Navy, page text
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
Added .