Motif · motif_propeller

Propeller

A ship's screw propeller. Attested by a Tier 1 maritime museum as a paired design, and the source frames the whole entry as humour first: “A representation of the dark humour often associated with seafaring.” The protective claim is inseparable from the placement and the pun the museum reports, which is why the edge below is scoped rather than general.

Thin

Medium confidenceresearched

1 attested · 5 promoted1 source · T1

What the research says

motifs_seed

Category: mechanical
Variants: twin propellers
Common styles: american traditional
Common themes: maritime; protection
Placement behaviors: buttocks
Composition behaviors: tattooed as a pair, one on each buttock

Provenance

1 resolved

Every tattoo makes a statement but what do they mean? (opens in a new tab)
Tier 1
The Historic Dockyard Chatham
Maritime heritage museum article on naval tattoo designs. Verbatim: records show designs that are "marks of love, loss and life events" while others demonstrate "national identities, religious faith, and patriotic pride"; "Each swallow represents 5,000 nautical miles in a sailor's career." One of the few tier 1 sources that speaks about tattoo subject matter as lived human experience rather than as art history.
museum · retrieved 2026-08-28

6 links

Associated with · 3

→ outgoingMaritimeThemeThin
strength 0.50promoted · not an independent attestationresearched
Promoted from motifs_seed.common_themes of motif_propeller ('maritime'). No new fact: this edge restates a value already present in the corpus. STRENGTH 0.5 set by the T11.11c rule: this pairing is asserted by ONE parent row's association column and by no second row; the pack's scale reads 0.5 as 'context-dependent'. Inputs are corpus counts only - no source count, tier or confidence is used.
→ outgoingProtectionSubthemeThin
strength 0.50promoted · not an independent attestationresearched
Promoted from motifs_seed.common_themes of motif_propeller ('protection'). No new fact: this edge restates a value already present in the corpus. STRENGTH 0.5 set by the T11.11c rule: this pairing is asserted by ONE parent row's association column and by no second row; the pack's scale reads 0.5 as 'context-dependent'. Inputs are corpus counts only - no source count, tier or confidence is used.
→ outgoingButtocksPlacementThin
strength unstatedpromoted · not an independent attestationresearched
Promoted from motifs_seed.placement_behaviors of motif_propeller ('buttocks') [class EP]. PLACEMENT AXIS. Typed associated_with, not placement_supports: the packs use placement_supports only as placement -> composition (doc 01 'forearm -> placement_supports -> vertical_composition'; specimen rel_0004), and model motif -> placement as 'anatomy_fit', which is not in the locked 14. The placement_ target prefix carries the axis. The cited source states this placement. No new fact: this edge restates a value already present in the corpus.

Can symbolize · 1

→ outgoingProtection from DrowningSymbolThin
strength 0.50researched
PAIR- AND PLACEMENT-CONDITIONAL, exactly like motif_pig and motif_rooster at T11.8a. The Tier 1 museum: “Each propeller was tattooed on a sailor’s butt cheek and was said to prevent drowning”. The evidence covers the pair in that placement; a single propeller elsewhere is not covered, and the museum's own framing is “dark humour” rather than sincere belief.

Frequently used in · 1

→ outgoingAmerican TraditionalStyleThin
strength 0.50promoted · not an independent attestationresearched
Promoted from motifs_seed.common_styles of motif_propeller ('american traditional'). No new fact: this edge restates a value already present in the corpus. STRENGTH 0.5 set by the T11.11c rule: this pairing is asserted by ONE parent row's association column and by no second row; the pack's scale reads 0.5 as 'context-dependent'. Inputs are corpus counts only - no source count, tier or confidence is used.

Supports composition · 1

→ outgoingBilateral PairCompositionThin
strength unstatedpromoted · not an independent attestationresearched
Promoted from motifs_seed.composition_behaviors of motif_propeller ('tattooed as a pair, one on each buttock') [class EC]. Source is the supporting concept, target the composition, mirroring placement_supports. No new fact: this edge restates a value already present in the corpus.