The North American P-51 Mustang is considered by many to be the dominant fighter of World War II.  Despite others being faster, more maneuverable, or having longer range, the P-51 was a good combination of all those traits.  Even after WWII, the P-51 still stayed in front-line service with other air forces and the Air National Guard.  Even now, the airframe of the P-51 is considered to be one of the best for the basis of Unlimited Air Racers like those seen at Reno each year.

This bold black and gray chestpiece tattoo was created by artist Mike Devries of Mike Devries Tattoos in Encino, CA.  Devries is also the artist behind another tattoo seen here on Tattoos In Flight featuring a B-17 — one of our more popular posts!

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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.

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The commitment required for large scale tattoo work is certainly commendable — the amount of time it takes along with the pain and cost over multiple sessions makes the completed piece not only a triumph of art, but also a triumph over various hurdles along the way.  A full sleeve project is one of these large scale projects and is one of the most visible you can get — making it important to get the right artwork from the right artist!

That’s the case in this fantastic sleeve featuring all different sorts of World War II fighter and bomber aircraft.  You can see famous planes like the P-51 Mustang, B-17 Flying Fortress, P-47 Thunderbolt, and SBD Dauntless here.

The awesome sleeve was created by artist Jason Leisge of Oddball Studios in Portland, OR.

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Another quick P-51 Mustang tattoo for today — this time a colorful stylized head-on shot on the inner bicep created by John Montgomery of the Tattoo Syndicate in San Bernardino, CA

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A colorful sleeve project for today that needed two photos to properly document. Yet again we can see that the North American P-51 Mustang continues to be one of the most popular aviation tattoo subjects out there. 

This particular tattoo project was created by Mark Lazio of Ground Zero Tattoo in Riverside, CA.

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Some might call them the “Cessna” of the modern warbird community, but the P-51 Mustang still holds a special place in many peoples hearts.  From the WWII veteran that saw the “Little Friend” protecting him just outside his gun position on a B-17 to the wide eyed kid who built plastic models of the “Cadillac of the Sky” — the P-51 will always be one of the most beloved warbirds out there.

In tribute to the P-51, artist Sage O’Connell from Urban Art Tattoo in Mesa, AZ (right around the corner from us!) tattooed this beautiful representation in black and gray on a passionate P-51 enthusiast!

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We get our share of P-51 Mustangs here, but this is the first modified P-51 air racer we’ve seen so far. Seems particularly fitting as we are merely a month away from the Reno Championship Air Races where modified P-51s, Seafurys, and Bearcats fight for the Unlimited Gold! This colorful armpiece was crafted by artist Kip Delaney of Victory Tattoo in Chico, CA.

By the way, FYI for you readers out there — we’ve changed our RSS feed, so make sure you fetch and link the new feed address to your news reader — the link is here.

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Artist Don Jewell sends us this great WWII pinup / P-51 Mustang collaboration this week. Don is located at Artistic Creations Tattoo in Sacramento, CA.

Looking for P-51 Mustang Source Material for a new tattoo? Take a look at the following books to use… shop online at HistoricAviation.com