Featured Photo: Paul Sherar

If you'd like to see some wildlife-inspired tattoos modeled by hunters, just scroll through Ryan Kirby's Instagram and look for the occasional out-of-place image of shirtless, white men mixed in among images of oil paintings and daily wildlife sketches.

Kirby, a wildlife artist based in Boone, North Carolina, started a sketch daily series on his Instagram account and those sketches, plus one oil painting featured on the cover of Outdoor Life in 2014, are starting to show up as tattoos. Hunters show off the fresh ink on their social accounts and sometimes they'll send Kirby an image of their new tattoo and, other times, the images just make their rounds and eventually find their way back to the artist.

Artwork featuring whitetail deer seem to be the tattoos of choice. This Kentucky hunter chose Kirby's "Running and Gunning" oil painting and posted an image of his rendition this month.

 

Here's an image of the "Running and Gunning" art that inspired the tattoo.

 

Most hunters looking for a new tattoo seem to prefer the daily sketches over the wildlife images captured in the oil paintings. "This is the second time one of my #sketchdailys has been turned into a tattoo, and it’s AWESOME every time," wrote Kirby on his #regram of the new ink.

 

And here's the original sketch of the mature buck captured in the tattoo. Kirby's sketch emphasizes the muscular, athletic build of this beautiful bruiser.

 

And here's one more. Another whitetail deer gets the honor.

 

The original sketch:

 

I asked Kirby about his followers and the tattoos honoring his artwork and here's what he said in a text reply: "Isn't it crazy? I've posted the ones I know about. I may give an original away to the first person to tattoo my logo on themselves."

He ended the text with a wink emoji, so I wouldn't say that offer is concrete. But here's something to chew on: the logo would actually make a pretty sweet tattoo.

So how about it Grand View Outdoor readers, who's willing to step up?

If you've already "stepped up" and have a wildlife-inspired tattoo or any ink that symbolizes your passion for hunting, please post it to our Facebook page or email me at amy.hatfield@grandviewoutdoors.com. If you'd like to see more of Ryan Kirby's art, go here.