Besides the fact that this tattoo includes the famous Curtiss JN-4 Jenny — one of the first practical training aircraft built for U.S. Army service, this tattoo also depicts one of the most famous stamps in the world, The Inverted Jenny.
First let’s talk about the aircraft. The Curtiss JN line of biplane trainer aircraft started production in 1915, but the early models were plagued with shoddy construction and inadequate power for flight. The JN-4, improved with the Curtiss OX-5 V8 engine, was an improvement and found itself ideal for training pilots. The 90hp engine gave the JN-4 a top speed of 75 mph and a ceiling of 6,500 feet. About 6,813 JNs were built and hundreds were sold off after military service and became the early backbone of aviation in the 20′s. Many of the planes could be seen in the hands of barnstormers, stunt pilots, and sport pilots in traveling flying circuses.
The stamp, known as the Inverted Jenny or Jenny Invert to those familiar with American philately, is one of the rarest known to exist. Issued on 10 May 1918, the stamp was an error due to a rush to get stamps made for the inauguration of Airmail service between New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. Since the stamp was two colors, the sheets of stamps needed to be printed on twice… an error prone process. It is believed that three sheets with the inversion error were caught during printing and destroyed, but one sheet of 100 somehow slipped through and in the ensuing decades, have become something of a “White Stag” to stamp collectors. A single stamp sold at auction in November 2007 fetched $977,500 and a block of four sold at auction in 2005 for $2.7 Million.
This unique tattoo of the rare stamp was created by artist Margaret Bushell of The Painted Lady tattoo studio in Harrisonburg, VA and was done on her husband.
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Scott Palmer Says:
going to correct a bit of your information in the text. I actually wrote the B.E.P. about the records of the 24 cent airmail and got a bunch of info in return. Firstly, there were 8 sheets which were destroyed after the first one was found. What I have not proved so far is that there was 10 total inverted sheets. I do know that the number of stamps were kept track of to the 1000, which is 10 sheets. In the process it would have been necessary to offset each set of 10 in the stacks to keep track. Therefore if Robey found 1 sheet in 1918 and 8 others were cataloged as destroyed and the total number of sheets released ends in the number 2…..there should still be one sheet. My theory is that it was found out west like a rumor in 1918 said and that it was mailed both outside and inside several envelopes to Europe. The estate was found roughly 2-3 years ago and has both unused and postmarked versions of the inverted stamp. Still have some proving to do but the first half is done and correct at this time. Thanks, Scott
Posted on August 19th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Editor - Tattoos In Flight Says:
Thanks for the extra information Scott! It was always a curious story to me as my father works for the USPS and the fact that it was an airmail stamp peaked my aviation interest. It certainly sounds like there is a good chance that more of the elusive stamps are still out there, probably archived in a families treasured belongings. Let’s hope!
Posted on September 24th, 2011 at 3:05 pm