Time Always Flies By
Since as far back as I can remember, I wanted to get a tattoo. Throughout high school, I had so many different ideas for cool designs—usually something Star Wars or comic book related. Something super nerdy, like me.
However, I could never decide on just one, and that indecision kept it from happening. Eventually, life got in the way. College, marriage, a kid. I just never had the time or money to do it.
Flash forward to April of 2017. My elderly grandparents both got terribly sick. So much so that when my grandfather collapsed on the floor, my grandmother was too weak to help him up. My wife and I rushed out to help them, finally convincing them to go to the hospital. While there, it was determined that on top of their illness, my grandfather had suffered a heart attack from the stress on his body.
Within a few days, he was sent home under hospice care and soon passed away in the house where he and my grandmother had raised their children.
My grandfather was my hero—a WWII vet who continued to serve his country by working in aviation engineering and even contracted with NASA. He loved planes from an early age, and later in life, he and his younger brother decided to build a replica of their favorite (if highly impractical) racing plane: the Gee Bee racer.
White and red, this squat, barrel-shaped plane featured nose art that depicted a rolled pair of dice and a 7 on one version, and dice and 11 on another. The full-size working replica the brothers built was the 11 version.
His love for that plane became something of a calling card for my grandfather. Whether it was decorative models, paintings, or even ties featuring the Gee Bee plane—he had to have it. As far back as I can remember, my grandparents’ house was full of Gee Bee 11 memorabilia.
When he passed away that March, I knew I wanted to honor him and his legacy. At 36 years old, I finally knew what I wanted a tattoo of.
On my arm in red ink is now the number 11 with dice on either side—a five and a six. Just like that scrappy little racing plane he loved.