Contractor Tattoos His Love For Wood Flooring On His Back

Manny Navarro shows off the wood flooring tattoos on his back.

 

The best contractors will say they love what they do, but do they have a tattoo to prove it? Manny Navarro does. In fact, he has two, one inked on each shoulder blade, that depict cartoon characters Speedy Gonzales and Baba Looey nailing and sanding a section of hardwood flooring planks. They're about 8 inches tall and took the tattoo artist five hours to outline, color and shade. 

"They say at the back there's a lot of nerves and a lot of people can't handle it," Navarro says, recounting a conversation with the tattoo artist. "He said, 'Manny, you want to do it in sessions?' And I said, 'Nah man, I want to get it done now.'" 

Navarro, owner of Hardwood Floors by Manny in Manteno, Ill., already had a number of tattoos on his body, including a dragon, his wife's name, and Speedy and Baba on each calf, too. He was a mixed martial arts enthusiast at the time, so the characters on his calves are depicted doing his two favorite moves. When Navarro switched to laying boards instead of splitting them, he immediately began imagining how he'd represent the change through ink. It finally happened last fall, and the tatts give Navarro something memorable to tell his clients. 

"The way I explain stuff, my clients are like, 'Manny, you really love your job,'" Navarro said. "I say, 'It's not a job to me. I wake up every morning without an alarm and I dream of this every night.' I say, 'I love it so much I got some tattoos on my back.'"