It’s been a while since we’ve run the Winged Wednesday feature… and since the most elemental image of flight involves the feathered wings seen on birds, it is truly the starting point for all flight related tattoos.
When it comes to tattooed wings, it only makes sense to restart the feature with the most famous tattooed wings ever, the wings worn by famous piercer Elayne Angel.
She is, perhaps, one of the first people in the modern history of tattooing to have wings tattooed on such a scale and with such realism on their back — and believed it unique enough to apply and attain a registration by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It was the first and to date is the only tattoo to be trademarked in such a form. On November 5, 2002 Elayne Angel’s wings were issued Registration No. 2,645,270. On the advice of her attorney, she had the encircled “R” symbol tattooed at the bottom of the wings to afford her greater legal protection in the case of action brought about from infringement of her mark.
The tattoo was created in 1986 by veteran tattoo artist Bob Roberts, owner of Spotlight Tattoo in Hollywood, CA. The tattoo was completed by Roberts in 18 hours, done over four sessions within a month. Her black and gray wings remain one of the most well-known tattoos in the past several decades.
Elayne Angel owned and operated Rings of Desire, her own studio in the French Quarter in New Orleans, LA. Unfortunately, the studio (and business) was badly impacted by Hurricane Katrina and as a result Elayne Angel closed the studio and relocated to Mexico. She remains one of the pioneers of modern, safe, and sterile piercing practices in the U.S.
Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.
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