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“Hold Fast.” It’s got eight letters, so that makes it a candidate for your knuckles. But what are the origins of the term? What does it really mean and where did it come from?

When you think tattoos, you think sailors. And you probably already knew that “Hold Fast” was a nautically themed tattoo. However, its origins are deeper than that: It’s also the motto of Clan MacLeod on Scotland. It appears on the crest along with a bull’s head the founder of the clan slew. You can still go visit the horn at one of their three castles in Scotland.

However, the nautical origins seem largely unconnected to the Scottish Clan. And while “Hold Fast” sounds like it might have the connotation of digging in and hanging tough (it does for the MacLeods), it means the exact opposite to a sailor: Stop whatever it is that you’re doing.

The origins of “Hold Fast” are in the Dutch “hou’ vast,” which means “hold fast” and is also the origin of the term “avast.” It’s roughly equivalent with the Spanish term “¡Ya basta!”

As with most tattoos rooted in a particular culture, “Hold Fast” has a specific meaning for those who have lived life before the mast. A “Hold Fast” tattoo signifies one who has worked as a deckhand in the same way that a fully rigged ship once indicated rounding the Cape Horn, hula girls are associated with time spent stationed in Hawai’i and swallows indicated just how much time a sailor had done at sea.

Like many sailor tattoos, there’s an element of superstition involved in the “Hold Fast” tattoo: Deckhands got it in hopes of getting a good grip.

In 2014 you don’t have to be a sailor or a deck hand to get a “Hold Fast” tattoo, on your knuckles or anywhere else. If you’re interested in getting a traditional sailor tattoo of any kind, head on down to Alchemy Tattoo in Silver Lake.