The Red Baron.

Gary came all the way from Pittsburgh for a Tattoo of the Red Baron's plane a few weeks ago. Initially, the idea was to illustrate the Baron's more famous Triplane- but, as I found through a small bit of internet perusal, his most well known vehicle was more for show than anything else, and added to his arsenal of quite a few planes much later in his career as a pilot. It was apparent at that point that a bit more research was in order- an aspect of tattooing that I've been enjoying more and more as of late. It turns out Manfred von Richthofen, a highly decorated WWI fighter pilot, actually made his start as a bit of a hack. It wasn't until a flight he made against orders through a huge storm, where he nearly perished, that he realized his folly and began to step up his game. It was at this point that he began shooting down plane after plane- and although he was a stunt-pilot by no means- he developed his signature takedown maneuver wherein he would lure his opponents to a position where the sun was behind his plane, rendering him nothing but a silhouette against the sky and very hard to see. It was also  around the same time that he painted his plane red for the first time- and Albatross DIII biplane that earned him his famous moniker- shown here on Gary's chest...