Greetings everyone… we’re back from our little summertime hiatus here at Tattoos In Flight, ready for another great year of great aviation tattoos from around the world!  Drop us a line at tattoosinflight@gmail.com if you have any good stuff to share!

The Chance Vought F4U Corsair continues the trend of being one of the most popular tattooed airplanes in today’s post.  With it’s famous inverted gull wings to provide ground clearance for the massive Hamilton Standard propeller with a diameter of 13 feet, 4 inches attached to the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine.

With the combination of advanced aerodynamics, one powerful engine and a large prop, the F4U Corsair became the first U.S. fighter aircraft to exceed 400 mph in flight, with the XF4U-1 reaching 405 mph on October 1st, 1940 on a flight from Stratford, CT to Hartford, CT.

The Corsair remained one of the fastest fighters used during WWII, though it’s full usefulness as a carrier-based fighter was never fully realized as the aircraft remained a tricky aircraft to operate on and off aircraft carriers. 

The Corsair was a long-serving design as well.  Along with use throughout World War II, the Corsair flew in the Korean War as a night fighter and even flew in the early days of the Vietnam War before U.S. entry during the First Indochina War in use by the French Navy’s Aéronavale.

This fantastic and colorful rib tattoo was created by artist Cecil Porter of Hollywood, CA.  Cecil works from a private studio at Under The Gun Tattoo on Melrose Ave. in Hollywood. This particular tattoo won Best Tattoo of the Day at the Body Art Expo in Pomona, CA in January 2009.

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

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The term “pin-up girl” first came into mention in popular culture in 1941 and became even more popular in the years immediately after.  The provocative drawing and photo spreads found in magazines of the glamorous models, movie stars, and starlets of the time were popular with the soldiers, sailors, airmen and grunts fighting in World War II.  At bases, on ships, or in camps far removed from the dazzle of Hollywood, these images that were plastered to the insides of footlockers, tacked up on bunks, and taped up on the walls of the barracks were sometimes the only images of a woman these guys would see for months.  It kept their blood pumping and reminded them of what was waiting for them when they got home.

Pin-up girls even found their way onto some of the chariots that took the guys into battle… as pieces of “nose art” on the bombers they’d pilot over enemy territory.  Famous recreations of pin-ups from artists Alberto Vargas and George Petty among others found their way onto the aluminum skinned noses of countless B-17’s, B-24’s, P-51’s, and B-26’s along with many other planes from the smallest liaison plane to the largest cargo transports. Sadly, many of these artworks were lost when thousands of the bombers and fighters were scrapped at the end of the war.  Luckily some panels were saved by some savvy-eyed scrappers and now hang in a gallery at the American Airpower Heritage Museum of the Commemorative Air Force in Midland, TX.

This awesome piece of pin-up girl perfection in front of a Chance-Vought F4U Corsair U.S. Navy fighter was created by artist Frank LaNatra of Eternal Ink Custom Tattoo Studio in Davie, FL.

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The Vought F4U Corsair remains one of the most unique and memorable fighter designs ever built.  With the characteristic inverted gull wing to accommodate the massive 13 ft Hamilton Standard hydromatic three-blade propeller swung by the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine, the Corsair became an icon of mid-to-late WWII Marine and Naval Airpower.  It’s status remained long after World War II as the Corsair was used during the Korean War and even lasted longer through use by foreign air forces and navies such as those in Honduras, France, and Argentina.

To sustain the image even more, the Corsair became a star of American movie and television with John Wayne’s Flying Leathernecks of 1951 and the television movie and series Baa Baa Black Sheep from 1976 to 1978.

Because of its iconic status, the Corsair remains a common theme in aviation tattoos and the memorial tattoo pictured here is no exception.  This fantastic black and gray version tattooed by Phil Young of Hope Gallery Tattoo in New Haven, CT perfectly depicts the bent-wing bird.  Ironically the Corsair is the “official state aircraft” of Connecticut due to it’s connection with Sikorsky Aircraft of Stratford, CT.

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While I was channel surfing a few weeks ago, I came across a documentary on tattooing airing on MSNBC.  I won’t mention the show here because I thought it was rather silly — with a quack on there trying to “explain” the psychological reasoning behind those who are tattooed… complete hooey.

What DID catch my eye though, was a colorful chestpiece tattoo featuring an F4U Corsair when the camera panned through a tattoo convention.  After a bit of searching, I found an image of the piece on the site of artist Megan Hoogland of Cactus Tattoo in Mankato, MN — I subsequently fell in love with her work!

So here is the star tattoo of the television show… make sure to click on the link below to see a larger version!

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The Vought F4U Corsair is one of the most frequently tattooed warbirds out there, but seeing an example painted as a Royal Canadian Navy version is fairly rare.  This tattoo was accomplished by Vincent Meyer at www.tattoosbyvincent.com.

Click the link below to see a larger version of this tattoo.

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Some WWII navy action going on here!  This tattoo of early “bird cage” Vought F4U Corsairs was done by artist Jon Reiter from Solid State Tattoo in Milwaukee, WI. Part of a whole WWII sleeve, we’ll show the other side of the arm a bit later in the week.

If you have a tattoo with an aviation theme you’d like to share, email it to us at tattoosinflight@gmail.com.