The Anchor tattoo is a design that has been a fixture of modern western tattooing for the better part of two centuries, and has even more ancient symbolic roots going back several millennia.

The anchor symbol is often incorporated with other design elements and is a central nautical design theme of many military service tattoos, particularly those tattoos found among sailors, marines and naval aviators. Other common design elements found with anchors are sailing ships, mermaids and other nautical symbols.