Scrimshaw is a form of artwork that involves scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of whales, and typically refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. The term originally referred to the making of common tools by sailors on whaling ships, where the byproducts of whales were readily available, only later referring to works of art created by whalers in their spare time. Scrimshaw was a leisure activity for creative whalers, as life aboard a whaling ship often included long stretches of time between whale sightings, which gave those onboard a great deal of free time for creative pursuits.

Materials used to create scrimshaw include whale bone, baleen, ivory, sea shells, antler, and cow horn. The practice survives as a hobby and as a trade for commercial artisans, and a maker of scrimshaw is known as a scrimshander. Scrimshaw is still practiced by whalers such as the Chukchi of Siberia and the Eskimos of Siberia and Alaska.

The defining characteristic of scrimshaw is the occupational context of process, materials, and personnel. Its aesthetic, iconographical, and technical characteristics, exhibiting trends and tendencies that mostly followed fashion ashore, place it.