I normally wouldn't enter a writeup requesting information, but I've been using this phrase all my life, and I just realized I don't know what it means or where it came from. I get on this wonderful internet and I find out that some dude named Simon Bradbury wrote a play with this title, and that some poofy haired band called Sleez Beez had an album by this name. But this really doesn't tell me much.
I can pretty much figure out the screwed and tattooed part, but what the hell does blued mean?
In the springtime of 2003, as the azaleas bloomed red and pink outside my home office and the Zoysia grass could almost be heard growing, reminding me that the lawn mowing and mosquito bites could not be far away, Evilrooster sent me this information. She requested that I add it to this writeup, and I think that's a good idea.
This information comes from: http://www.wordwizard.com
These theories revolve primarily around language coming out of WWII. In the Pacific Fleet, if you were in the Navy, the phrase meant that you had landed in a foreign port and had done everything of consequence in that port. To wit, you had been screwed (serviced by the local prostitutes), blued (had a local tailor make you a couple of sets of Dress Blue Uniforms), and tattooed requires as much explanation as I just wasted on "screwed."
Another theory is not as pleasant. In this scenario, "blued" is from the earlier "blewed," meaning "robbed." And "tattooed" is thought to have the less common connotation of "struck rapidly and repeatedly." Combined with these meanings, the "screwed" is not nearly as pleasant. In other words, you've just had the crap beaten out of you and those who did it took your stuff, too.