Trump’s Biggest Fans Ink Iconic Fist-Raising Photo on Their Bodies

Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci’s photo of former President Donald Trump raising his fist just after surviving an assassination attempt has been a source of inspiration for many of Trump’s biggest supporters—with some going so far as to get the image inked onto their bodies permanently.

Dan, who did not want to share his last name, is one of those Trump super-fans. He told The Daily Beast that he was on X when the assassination attempt happened.

Dan said the moment was “emotional,” adding: “As an American it was gut-wrenching.”

“It was like, I just hope he’s okay, you know, pray for him.

“But when he put that fist in the air, that was it. That’s history,” he said.

“I saw the photo,” Dan said, “and it wasn’t immediately ‘all right, let’s go get a tattoo.’

“I thought about it, and the way it hit home with me of a representation of his arm in the air with the blood on his face hollering at the people to fight, because they are trying to take away our freedoms,” he said. “I felt like [it was huge] for him to come out of that and survive.”

Joe Dillon, Dan’s tattoo artist and friend, said Dan told him he wanted to add the picture to a larger piece he was in the process of getting: A Statue of Liberty being handcuffed, gagged with an American flag, and blinded by a hundred dollar bill.

“Everywhere but X you can’t get free speech on any other platform, Facebook, Instagram, any of the major social TikTok, any of the major social media outlets censor everybody,” Dan said, explaining the gag.

The hundred dollar bill blinding lady liberty signified the way money manipulates politicians—and the influence of companies like BlackRock, which Dan said “is pushing for something bigger than what’s going on with the war in Ukraine.”

And finally, the handcuffs represent how “you’re pretty much enslaved to the government.”

Dillon said Dan and him “wound up talking about [the assassination attempt] like the next day or so,” while working on the Statue of Liberty piece, “and he said he wanted it. ‘I was like, all right, bet, let’s do it.’”

“It’s probably gonna wind up being one of the most iconic images ever. So definitely a good tattoo,” Dillion added.

Dillon said his shop, Ink Therapy, tries to “stay away from a lot of political stuff because it’s inflammatory and the people we tattoo, we tattoo the extremes on both sides. I mean, like, we have people that get a bunch of 1776 tattoos and don’t tread on me. And then the next day, you know, we’re doing a bunch of rainbow equal signs, and so we tattoo both people.”

Dan said he’s gotten a lot of compliments on the tattoo from fellow MAGA supporters online.

“Of course, you have the, the other side that you know, will demonize me and look bad upon me,” he said, adding: “Their view doesn’t matter to me becauseI did this for America, I did this for Trump. I did this for a country.”

“That’s what this statement is on my arm is, because I love America and I support Trump, and he supports America,” Dan concluded.

James, who did not want to share his last name with the Daily Beast, also took the leap and had Trump’s visage permanently rendered on his body this week.

He was hanging out on Saturday night with a friend, Tyler Jackson, when someone called them and told them of the news.

“So then we had that on the news for probably, I would say 3-4 hours, and we kept seeing the same picture over and over and over,” said Jackson, who also happens to be a tattoo artist at Studio Ink in Maryland.

“After that, I don’t know, the night got going, beers were kind of flowing to people and [James] was like, ‘hey, I would totally get that’ and I was like, ‘let's be one of the first ones to do it.’ So that’s what we did,” Jackson said.

“We’re not that political. We just thought the picture went hard,” he added.

“I said, he’s one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had. And nobody in this world should have anybody attempt to assassinate them,” James said. “It’s not right.”

An hour later, the picture was inked on James’s leg.

The tattoo went viral. Jackson’s post on TikTok has over 386k views and his post on Instagram has over 28k likes, with both garnering thousands of comments.

“Then the comments are, like, very political ... but it doesn’t bother me,” Jackson reflected. “You can’t shoot the messenger, you know what I mean?”

“It’s my body,” James said of the comments criticizing him. “I had somebody comment on there and say, ‘hey, what about all the mass shootings and all this and that?’”

“I said, you know what? Listen, I care about everything that happens like that when it comes to the children. I care about everything, if I could put every single child’s name on my body that that happened to, I would do it,” he added.