Welcome to TATTOOS IN FLIGHT
The Airplane, Flying & Aviation Themed Tattoos Blog

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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The use of cartoons and humor goes a long way to lighten a stressful environment in times of war.  With any tough assignment, crew morale is an utmost concern and any opportunity to take some of the edge off the situation is welcomed.  Thus the reason for flight crews adorning the noses of their aircraft with elaborate (and sometime very risque) paintings known as nose art. 

Soldiers, sailors and airmen often doodled and cartooned to take their minds off the war as well.  Perhaps one of the most famous cartoonists of WWII was Bill Mauldin, a soldier with the 45th Infantry Division who became known for his cartoons of common soldiers or GIs.  Mauldin eventually began drawing for the newspaper Stars and Stripes, featuring the characters Willie and Joe.  Mauldin eventually went on to become a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist after the war.

This colorful tattoo, featuring a cartoon version of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was created by John Wayne of Beesting Tattoos in Belle River, Ontario CA

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As you may know, the Tattoos In Flight headquarters is located just outside of Phoenix, AZ in Mesa, AZ.  Mesa is where the former Hughes, former McDonnell Douglas helicopter factory — now operated by Boeing — is located and is the home of the AH-64 Apache helicopter.  I regularly see various versions of the AH-64 flying overhead and when I saw this tattoo, I immediately knew what it was!

The AH-64 Apache is the US Army’s primary attack helicopter and is the helicopter that replaced the venerable AH-1 Cobra (though the USMC still uses the Cobra as of 2008).  The Apache prototype, the Hughes Model 77/YAH-64A first flew in September of 1975, but it’s usefulness as an all-weather, day-night attack helicopter still reigns as it forges forward as the AH-64D Longbow Apache (the latest, Block III, was flown in 2008 and is currently in production).

The awesome black and gray version of the AH-64 as a tattoo was done by second-time Tattoos In Flight spotlight artist Jason Jones who can be found tattooing in Springfield, MO.  Jason was the artist for an earlier black and gray P-47 Thunderbolt tattoo which has become one of the more famous and popular tattoos on our site.

It was noted that the wearer was a mechanic with the US Army and was getting the tattoo to commemorate his time there.  He is adding unit insignia and more under the Apache, and what we see here is the result of only three hours of tattoo work – inkredible!

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