Raul Honors His Father with a Portrait

I spotted Raul outside of F.I.T. and stopped to ask him about this portrait on his inner left forearm.

The gentleman pictured is Raul's father, based on a photograph of him taken when he was serving as a paratrooper in the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic.

Raul told me he always had a special relationship with his father, who had always wanted his son to follow in his footsteps in the military. Raul explained that his father, however, changed his tune about this late in his career.

Raul did not indicate whether this was due to his father's feeling about life in the military, or a result of his seeing that his son was not meant for a life as a paratrooper.

Regardless, the portrait is a touching example of a son's affection for his father.

Raul credits this piece to Triple X Tattoo in Manhattan, and remembered the artist being from Australia and named Mike. A call to Triple X did not clarify this, as I could not connect the three elements to positively identify the artist.

Nonetheless, thanks go to Raul for sharing his inked portrait of his father with us here on Tattoosday!

Michelle's Amazing Owl Tattoo Honors Her Dad

I follow a method to creating content for this blog and I generally post ink in the chronological order that I see it. Sometimes a post may take longer because it requires more research. Other times, a tattoo is so good, it deserves to be seen right away. The tattoo above is one of those that demanded it be posted immediately. It helped that the story behind it is short and sweet.

I had left the office for lunch on Friday and I spotted this owl (sorry, bad pun) going into Starbucks. I suddenly realized I had left my camera on my desk. What to do? Run upstairs and risk missing the chance? Ask her to send me a photo? Then, I realized I had my phone, a recent upgrade, with a functioning camera. But would it take a good tattoo picture?

I believe so.

This is Michelle's tattoo, covering her upper left arm. It is dedicated to her father, who is her very own "wise old owl". The tattoo artist was Marina, who was apprenticing at Fly-Rite Studio, in Brooklyn.

All I can say is, "Wow." Not only is it an amazingly beautiful piece of body art, but it rendered the dozen or so tattoos I saw throughout the day uninteresting. When you fly first class, it's hard to go back to sitting in coach.

Everything I've seen come out of Fly-Rite has been spot-on. See other tattoos that were inked st the studio here.

Thanks again profusely to Michelle for sharing her wonderful owl tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and thanks to Marina for inking such a cool piece!