Tattooing stands alongside painting and sculpture as the most ancient direct expression of human creativity across the globe, with supporting physical evidence dating to over 5,000 years ago. Historically, tattoos have appealed to individuals for various reasons including personal taste and social aesthetic preferences. Over the years, advances and influences within culture, fashion, politics, religion, and technology have altered the appeal, methods, and styles of tattooing. The ancient art-form has been interwoven throughout human history, yet historically has been given little scholarly attention. Ancient tattooing practices evolved in the Pacific Islands into styles known as the Polynesian tatau. Explorers and sailors of the early 1900s became directly exposed to tattooing through contact with the Pacific inhabitants, returning to their Western homelands with tattoo knowledge and artwork. The geometric patterns, lines, and dots of tatau transformed into stylistic tattoos containing nautical imagery with bold colors and heavy outlines. Thus, tattooing evolved through the encounters of Western and non-Western cultures becoming a style commonly known today as “Traditional Tattoos.” This paper investigates how the Traditional Tattoo sub-genres Sailor and Tribal fit within the art history canon, taking a look at how they developed while relating non-Western history to a contemporary Western perspective.