Tattoos In The Open Water

Steven Munatones 05/18/2021 open water swimming No Comment

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.

Italian Olympic marathon swimmer Rachele Bruni is shown above with her selection of tattoos.

Csaba Gercsak is a two-time Olympian marathon swimmer

Cathy Delneo, a survivor of a shark encounter with a giant wave imagery on her back.

Vito Bialla has tattoos on each arm, one of a male orca and another one of a female orca.

Bruckner Chase is also known as Uila O Le Sami in American Samoa, is an environmentalist and ocean advocate

John Daprato celebrated the Boston Light Swim with a tattoo.

Brazilian marathon swimmer Glauco Rangel has a large swordfish covering his left shoulder.

Rob Kent celebrating his Lake Ontario crossing.

Jen King and her turtle tattoo above and lotus flower tattoo below:

Olympian Alex Meyer shows his trident tattoo.

16-year-old Tien Nguyen of Segerstrom Fundamental High School draws temporary tattoos on her teammates.

Olympic silver medalist Spiros Gianniotis of Greece

Diego López Dominguez sharing his celebratory tattoo of his swim in Antarctica during his Seven Continents.

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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Steven Munatones

Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.

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