One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was the Disney film The Rocketeer.  Though I’ve never been a huge fan of Disney flicks, this one had subject matter that I actually could relate to — WWII, air racing, gritty airport bums, and some awesome Art Deco technology!  It’s sheer fantasy as most rocket technology of the 40’s involved rocket fuel that was not only highly toxic, but extremely unstable and capable of catastrophic explosions (see C-Stoff and T-Stoff as used in the Me-163 Komet).

Regardless, the fantasy was great to dream about… for a normal guy to don a rocket pack and a cool helmet and be able to fly faster than just about any plane of the time and kick some Nazzie arse at the same time!

So, as a result, I present this tattoo of the Rocketeer in honor of the dream… the dream of superheroes and flying like a bird… or at least a rather fragile bullet!  Plus, I had to have another comic character to keep Atomic Robo company.

This tattoo was created by Shad Perlich of Traditional Tattoo in San Luis Obispo, CA.

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Yesterday we featured a World War II dogfight over the Pacific Theater, but today we’ll feature a European Theater dogfight with North American P-51 Mustangs and German aircraft loosely based on the Messerschmitt Bf-109 and the Focke-Wulf FW-190.

This forearm sleeve, dramatically tattooed in black and gray, was created by Jeremiah Barba of Outerlimits Tattoo in Long Beach, CA.

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Illustrated here is a very colorful collage of a World War II dogfight over the Pacific between two US Navy Grumman F4F Wildcats and two Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters.  Reminiscent of the fantastic paintings and illustrations on the boxtops of plastic models in the 50’s and 60’s, this tattoo is very similar — close quarters fighting, billowy clouds and plumes of flames streaming off the “bad guy”.

However, unlike those paintings, this tattoo features a lovely pin-up at the center.  The inspiration for many pieces of “nose art” on bombers and fighters, the pin-up and the magazines they came from were as much a part of a servicemans boot locker as… his boots! 

The tattoo was created by Lea Vendetta of Dave and Lea Tattoo, currently in Key West, FL at Paradise Tattoo but will be around the Ft. Lauderdale area in 2009.

As a side note, I had the brief opportunity to meet Lea and her husband Dave Archer by chance on a boat trip to the Dry Tortugas National Historic Park from Key West.  At the time I was visiting family down there and they both were vacationing there.  After years of seeing their work and photos in magazines, I easily recognized them and made sure to say hello.  Pretty cool odds when you consider only about 200 people visit that island park daily!

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The Douglas SBD Dauntless was the dive bomber of choice for the United States Navy at the beginning of World War II.  In fact, a group of SBDs arriving in Hawaii from the USS Enterprise at sea were caught in the attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. 

In US Army service, the type was known as the A-24 Banshee, but it saw limited service as many regarded the type as too slow, too short-ranged and too poorly armed for their needs.

Far more acclaimed in Naval Aviation service, the SBD is perhaps best known for it’s role during the Battle of Midway in June of 1942.  In one day, attacking SBD Dauntlesses sank or fatally damaged all four Japanese carriers — three (Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū) within six minutes and the Hiryū later in the day.

Though joined later in the war by the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, many crews favored the “Slow But Deadly” (SBD) over the “Son of a Bitch, 2nd Class” (SB2C) as a dive bomber, though it was an older design.

This tattoo of an SBD Dauntless, ironically placed near a bellybutton on the stomach (a Navel Fighter?) was created by artist Nick Chaboya at Classic Tattoo Studio in Grass Valley, CA.

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A colorful World War II-inspired arm sleeve tattoo today from Atlantis Body Arts in Connecticut.  Though the aircraft are a bit more generic representations of famous types a done in an “old school” format, the tattoo is still fun in every sense of the word.  Some may even recognize the head-on view of an airplane resembling a Dornier DO-17 “Flying Pencil” at the bottom of the blue sky portion.

The tattoo was created by Christian Harrison of Atlantis Body Arts in Milford, CT and was found via MySpace at their shop link that can be found here.

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Decided to put something a bit light and whimsical up today — a good relaxing change for the weekend.  This surreal combination of fighter nose (looks a lot like the P-40 Warhawk but with a two-blade prop) and butterfly wings is certainly an interesting combination.

This tattoo was created by Paul Wren of Old Ghost Tattoo (formerly Th’Inker Tattoo) in Melbourne, FL.

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