Originally, the Southern Cross was just a star constellation, predominantly composed of stars in the Scorpius–Centaurus Association. It’s mostly visible in the Southern Hemisphere, where it helped Europe’s early sailors to navigate the oceans and came to be associated with a particular style of colonial patriotism. But in 2005, this five-star symbol started to mean something else. This was when images of the Cronulla Riots were broadcast around Australia, along with images of the crowd’s most drunk, violent members sporting Southern Cross tattoos.Advertisement With this cultural shift in mind, we wanted to speak to some people who still have them. Why did they get them? And with racial inequality so regularly in the news, how do they feel now? Interviews have been edited for length and clarity. Some names have been changed at interviewee’s requests.
: Do you want to tell me about your Southern Cross tattoo and what it meant to you back then? Julie Smith: I used to play Ultimate Frisbee as a sport, and I made an Australian team. So, I was a bit chuffed with that — very nostalgic of the green and gold. I just thought that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I’m right handed, so I had the Southern Cross done on my right shoulder. Do you remember how your tattoo was received? At first it was OK but then there were a series of racial tensions around that time and then the Cronulla Riots happened, and it just went ballistic. I was working at a technical college at the time, in quite a lower socioeconomic area. It’s basically filled with redneck meathead white Australians and the Southern Cross out there means something different. That’s why I decided to have it removed.
Has anyone ever looked at it and given you any flack about it? Apart from my parents? No. Because of the Cronulla Riots and where I was working, I started to become a bit uncomfortable with the Southern Cross. I never really put it on display as a badge of honour.Advertisement When you see the Southern Cross these days, what is the thing that immediately jumps to mind? Home. When you look up in the sky, you find the Southern Cross. I don’t have any negativity towards it. I’m happy to appreciate the Southern Cross in my own head as opposed to having it on my body.
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What made you get your tattoo? I was 18 years old and I was just like “fuck it.” I’ve never been someone to do things by halves, so I got a huge Southern Cross across my back. Is it huge? How huge is it? Oh, it’s my whole back. That’s very committed. Yep. I just decided to get a tattoo and then as time went on, I started travelling and realised that people really judged me for getting it. I was working on the Greek Islands and I remember someone pointing to my back like “Oh this fucking idiot.” I even started noticing people wouldn't talk to me because of it. So I started to feel pretty self conscious about it. Do you still feel self conscious? Yeah I do. I won’t really take my shirt off in public anymore. I was at a beach recently and every time someone drove past along the road I tried to make sure my back was facing the water, away from the cars. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. It’s not. But someone told me that tattoos aren’t something to regret because they represent how you were feeling at the time. And I think that’s true. I don’t think you should regret a tattoo, but when you’ve got something tattooed on your back that has this racist stigma, people look at it and say, “what the hell has this dickhead done.”Advertisement
Hey Ashleigh, when did you get your Southern Cross tattoo? I first noticed the Southern Cross around 1997. During a very difficult relationship which included alcoholism and violence, I would go outside at night and sit on my little porch of my commission home, and I always seemed to be drawn to it. I got the tattoo at the end of that year. What do you mean by you were drawn to it? I always felt in some weird way that it was talking to me and giving me peace and strength. At the same time, I started to toy with the idea of a god as I started to also feel a supernatural and spiritual presence. And for some reason, it seemed to revolve around my time with the cross. Have you felt judged by people for having the tattoo? I was a young, tattooed single mother in the ‘90s. I have always felt judged. Did that lead you to ever think about, or feel pressured to remove it? I felt pressured into never getting tattoos in the first place. I had my first tattooist refuse to tattoo my shoulder/bicep. He finally agreed and I’ve never regretted it. Same with the piercings I got. I’ve always wanted subdermal diamante studs in the stars but figured they’d be ripped out by snagging on a towel or something like that. With additional reporting by Joseph Lew
By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content.Southern Cross tattoos: one for every Tom, Dick and BarryAre Southern Cross tattoos the footprints of Generation Y? Which raises the question... why?
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Generation Y. We had our Nokia 3315s confiscated at school, Kevin ‘07 was a beacon of progressive light for us young voters and we eat smashed avocado.
But what we lack in home-owning, we gain in body art, and today’s millennials are also a group who turned 18 during a time when the tattoo industry
Of us consider tattoos as a ‘coming of age’ celebration. In the same way venues for 18th birthday parties were booked and so were flights to the Gold Coast, many also made an appointment at the tattoo parlor like a rite of passage into adulthood. We are the generation of
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As a woman with a 2007 foot-tattoo of the word love in cursive, who is now too tired for music festivals, too conservative for denim shorts and too old for flower crowns, I've experienced this first hand.
Statistically speaking, one in five of the parents at future P&C meetings will be concealing a tattoo under their suit and tie. Chances are it will be of the Southern Cross. Which brings me to the cultural phenomenon of the Southern Cross tattoo - something that has become so widespread it’s now known as a ‘South’n Cross tatt’ in the same way that calling ‘Maccas’, ‘McDonalds’ in the 21st Century is unnecessary.
Generation Y and the Southern Cross tattoo could be argued as being two sides of the same coin. What was once on 19-year-olds in the nosebleed section at Hilltop Hoods’ gigs, is now blue and faded on late-20s, early 30s skin. In 2010 – on the tail end of the SC tattoo boom –
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That he was still ‘pumping out’ at least three to four Southern Cross tattoos per week. Another estimated they’d done 200 per year. Southern Cross tattoos have since become so common, rather than actually being the needle in the haystack, it’s as though young Australians took that needle in the mid-naughties and began inscribing five stars on themselves with it.
This meant that, you could… a) get a tattoo and avoid the embarrassment of ending up with a Chinese symbol that didn’t quite translate properly and b) like any fashion or trend, derive confidence from impressing peers.
“I wanted the tattoo because everyone had it and I thought it was cool, ” says Beck, who got it on her foot 8 years ago (and is currently looking to have it removed).
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Aaron, 26, another SC-owner, says he was inspired by a friend’s design and got one once he was of age. “We all thought we were cool back then for getting them. Back in my hometown there was maybe 2 or 3 who had one in my group, but later I joined the Navy and it was like, everyone had one. There was so, so many.”
But why a design taken from our national flag? Well, assuming you were privileged enough to be involved in the dominant culture, majority of millenials were products of a time which spawned and invigorated
And #straya. Those born in 1988 even had a special 'Australia' birth certificate which commemorated the nation’s bicentenary. Branding yourself 'Australian' would seem like an obvious choice when you've been fed an extreme amount of national pride quite literally since the day you were born.
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But logistically, the Southern Cross was everything that its predecessor, the tribal tattoo, wasn’t. It was small, it was easy to have done and it was cheap to buy.
The Southern Cross was everything that its predecessor, the tribal tattoo, wasn’t. It was small, it was easy to have done
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