Yo Adrian! I did it! I Got a Tattoo!

No one had ever been able to go the distance against Apollo Creed until a nobody from Philly shocked the world by standing toe to toe with the champ for 15 grueling rounds. Of course, this never really happened and is instead the plot of the iconic Academy Award winning Rocky. The titular hero’s visage as tattooed by Freshly Inked cover artist Cecil Porter is today’s Inked Tattoo of the Day.

Obviously Porter based the tattoo on a picture of Rocky before he engaged in that brutal battle with Creed as the Italian Stallion’s face is without a mark in this beautifully realistic tattoo. For the 3 people in America who haven’t seen Rocky the bulk of the film focuses around Sylvester Stallone’s character attempting to prove people that he can do the unthinkable when he boxes the heavyweight champion; in a loose way this relates to how Porter came to find his signature style of tattooing.

“I was told I couldn’t do [realism],” Porter says. “My old boss Rodney Rose said ‘I think with portraits you either have it or you don’t and you don’t.’ Now he wasn’t being mean or anything, that’s just how we talk. But still I thought man screw that I can learn to do anything.”

As you can see from the tattoo above Porter was able to put his mind to it and exceed everyone’s expectations, he is now known worldwide for his portraiture work. Luckily for Porter he didn’t have to run up any library steps or get his face caved in to prove that he had made it like Rocky did, all he had to do was create a slew of amazing tattoos. You can see Porter’s Rocky portrait and a lot more of his work by clicking here.