For those of you who are new visitors to Tattoos In Flight, welcome!  We’ve been in operation since June 2008 and are glad you stopped by.  You may be joining us from a link from some of the social networks we participate in… like Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, or Twitter.  You may also be joining us from our recent mention in AvWeb in the “On the fly” section or mention on the website for Flight Journal magazine as well.

In any case, welcome and we hope you continue to visit – and maybe even tell your friends about us (click here to send an email referring them to the site!)

Here are some news items for you…

• We’ve created and completed an entire listing of our posts and artists sorted by their physical location, so you can find an artist close to you if you are considering getting a new tattoo! Click here to go there, or you can find it at “Artists by Location” in the right hand menu.

• We are ALWAYS looking for new content and encourage you to send us your aviation tattoos.  If you even come across any aviation-related tattoos on the web, send them to us!  Make sure to give us the artist name, studio name, website, and location so we can properly credit them here.  To make uploading easier, we now have a handy upload form at the “Submit a Photo / Story” link on the menu at the right.

• We’re especially interested in any tattoo artists who are also pilots and would love to feature a picture with you and your “ride” with wings.  Either email photos to us at tattoosinflight@gmail.com or use the “Submit a Photo / Story” link.  For those artists who previously submitted photos, we’ll be putting those up soon — we had misplaced the backup file with your emails until today!

• If you’re a Facebook user, we’d love to have you join us as a “fan” – go to our Facebook page and join us!

• We’d love to hear from you!  Let us know what your thoughts on the site are or how we might be able to improve it. Drop us a line at tattoosinflight@gmail.com and let us know how we’re doing!

• And lastly, since our annual web host bill is coming due in January, we’re always appreciative of any “tips” to help keep the bills low if you enjoy the site. Even shopping with our advertisers will help too!  We enjoy producing Tattoos In Flight and hope you’re enjoying it just as much!

Thanks everyone for a great first six months!  We are looking forward to many more of them too!

Thanks,
R.K. – The Editor

The Bell UH-1 Iroquois – affectionately known as the “Huey”, used extensively in (and became an icon of)the Vietnam War, could be considered one of the most important aircraft of the 20th century.  Able to insert or extract soldiers from rugged combat zones, the Huey revolutionized the way wars were fought.

This black and gray rib tattoo scene shows what the Huey was built for — an en masse formation of Hueys placing infantry in the middle of a rugged jungle. The tattoo was created by Cody Meyer of Aces High Tattoo Shop in West Palm Beach, FL.

Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.

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Most aviation enthusiasts pride themselves in the fact they can identify an airplane on the ground or in the air by only a few references.  Much like a gearhead identifying a car by the growl of the engine, an airplane nut only needs the profile of a wing, nose, or tail to give a positive I.D.  That’s exactly what happened when I was surfing through the web and came across this tattoo — immediately recognized as the nose of a North American P-51D Mustang.  It’s an interesting tattoo and it leaves me to wonder if the rest of the airplane extends onto the back.

The tattoo was created by artist Riley Baxter of Temple House Tattoo in Hollywood, CA.

Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.

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 A colorful taste of a Pacific Theater dogfight from World War Two today.  Early in the war, the Grumman F4F Wildcat was the frontline Naval fighter despite the fact it was somewhat obsolete by the start of the war.  Replaced later by the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the Wildcat still held it’s own during the early days of the war and still fought valiantly during the Battle of Midway. Though the Wildcat was outperformed by the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero, the F4F had the ability to absorb a tremendous amount of damage and yet keep fighting.  As a result, seven Wildcat pilots were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during the war.

This beautiful tribute to the Wildcat was created by Marco Hyder of MarcoHyder.com working in Virginia Beach, VA

Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.

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Since the early days of aviation, wings as a “fashion accessory” for aviators has been a natural fit.  This particular tattoo — done on a lower stomach area (yes, ouch) — illustrates the type of wings used during World War II by the Army Air Corps. 

This tattoo was created by artist Seth Mushrush of Baker Street Tattoo in Media, PA.

Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.

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We’ve featured a few great black and gray portraits here on Tattoos In Flight, but this particular tattoo by artist Aaron Bell of Slave to the Needle in Seattle, WA really takes the cake!  Aaron’s attention to detail and the rich tonal quality really makes this portrait shine.

The portrait represents the image of a World War II fighter pilot complete with his A-2 Leather Bomber Jacket, “Mae West” life vest, leather helmet and goggles, and O2 Mask.

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The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is considered by some to be the ultimate fighter created during WWII.  The sleek, twin-engine, twin-boom fighter that came from Lockheed in Burbank, CA was immortalized for many years during and following the war in media ranging from film (like 1943′s “A Guy Named Joe“) all the way down to the doodles penned by countless students in composition books as they day-dreamed about the ultimate fighter plane.

Somewhere in the middle lies the tattooed image of the P-38, like the tattoo we are featuring today.  This particular tattoo was created by Tony Honaker of Sacred Body Art in Amelia, OH.

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The black and gray portrait has become one of the most popular styles of tattooing in recent years.  Perhaps this is due in part to the influence of artists like Tom Renshaw, Bob Tyrell, and the popularity of TV’s Kat Von D.  In any case, the detail achieved in many of these portraits is astonishing and this portrait of a Russian fighter pilot is certainly no exception.

The tattoo was created by Corey Miller of Six Feet Under Tattoo Parlor in Upland, CA.  Miller co-stars on TLC’s L.A. Ink.

Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.

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