LAVELLE - James M. Jeffrey is stoic as he gazes into the camera, holding up a Nazi battle flag captured on the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day Invasion of World War II.
Jeffrey, a U.S. Coast Guard signalman of Mount Carmel, arrived off the French Coast in a 83-foot wooden-hulled patrol craft - cutter No. 83432.
His job was to help his cutter's skipper draw up the charts used to map the course 8342 would take during the invasion. His cutter was among those assigned to Rescue Flotilla One, which saved the lives of more than 400 men on D-Day alone and more than 1,400 by the war's end, according to the Coast Guard website.
The photo was taken by U.S. Coast Guard public relations and delivered to the Mount Carmel Item - a predecessor of The News-Item -which published it.
Nearly 70 years later, it moved his grandson, Jeff Higgins, of Lavelle, to have the moment tattooed and inspired a well-respected artist to do the work.
A print of the photograph is framed and sits on a shelf inside Higgins' family home in Lavelle.
Higgins fondly recalls his grandfather. He was funny, he says, and reminded him of Popeye. Jeffrey chewed pouch tobacco and used a spittoon. He had a tattoo, too, of a flower and anchor.
Jeffrey passed away when Higgins, now a 32-year-old registered nurse, was a freshman in high school.
"He was always an inspiration. He was just a great guy," Higgins said.
"If I could find someone to tattoo that, that's the tattoo for me," Higgins said, recalling his mind-set when deciding last year on getting a tattoo of the photograph on his right shoulder - his first and only.
"It's got meaning. A lot of people get tattoos and it's just silly stuff. ... That's got a classic look to it; it's my grandfather from the war. That's something I could keep on my body for the rest of my life."
When Shane O'Neill, winner of Spike TV's inaugural "Ink Master" reality competition, looked over the photo that had been emailed to him by Higgins, he waived the standard 10-month wait other customers endure for an appointment and pushed Higgins to the front of the line.
Higgins was impressed that O'Neill - who runs his Infamous Tattoo studios with locations north of Philadelphia and in Delaware - had responded so quickly and excitedly to the idea, and even more so impressed that it had so inspired someone of his caliber.
"My idea was matching what he would go for. I was really thrilled about that," Higgins said.
O'Neill's biography on the "Ink Master" website calls him one of the most prominent tattoo artists of portraits and work based in realism. That claim is easily backed by dozens of amazingly detailed and lifelike portraits he's completed and can be seen online at www.shaneoneilltattoos.com.
The session to complete the tattoo from start to finish took eight hours last April, months before the show's airing.
When O'Neill finished, Higgins had a look. He was blown away.
"He was spot on. This looks just like my grandfather. The face, the features, it was on point," Higgins said.
He returned to Lavelle, no one knowing he had gotten the body art. When his mom saw the tattoo, "she was touched. She got teary eyed."
The tattoo cuts off just short of showing the Nazi symbol so as not to arouse any ill feelings or misconceptions.
Thrilled with the results, Higgins says he'll get more work done as long as the right inspiration comes along.
"Ink Master" debuted in January and culminated with O'Neill's victory earlier this month. The show's popularity has Spike TV green-lighting a second season.