Rhodey had his first tattoo right after finishing MIT with Tony, it was after their own graduation party in their now former dorm that they thought of getting tattoos. It was actually Tony that suggested it but Rhodey always goes along with his shit, that’s just who he is. (+)

(+) So they went, Tony was supposed to go first but in one of the few moments were he’s actually hit with the possible consequences of his potential action, he backed out (it might be the alcohol talking) in a flurry of panic. Rhodey, trying to calm him down, asked (+)

(+) his opinion on what should he get and where. That distracted Tony so he went to the back and decided on something small and simple to be placed on the underside of Rhodey’s biceps.

The day they both met each other.

Tony knew Rhodey and Rhodey knew Tony, they know each (+)

(+) other better than anyone ever did. But it never failed to make Rhodey smile when his hands would drift towards his first tattoo in such light font, a blink and you’ll miss it kind of piece, it may be on his body but it feels like a secret just for the two of them. (+)

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It just made Rhodey love him more.

He got his second tattoo a few weeks after Tony was kidnapped in Afghanistan. A small red chrysanthemum at the side of his middle finger. Hope that Tony will return to him. Love because Rhodey loved him like no other. Friendship (+)

(+) because they’ll always be the two faces of the same coin. Done in almost watercolour painting style, it signified how scattered his thoughts were as he looked at every nook and cranny of the Afghan desert for Tony.

And when he found him? He held him close, silently (+)

(+) thanking the flower on his finger for bringing Tony back to him.

It was also worth it to see recognition dawning on the man’s face once he saw the newest piece of art adorning Rhodey.

His Rhodey.

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Rhodey’s third tattoo was on his back and it was the biggest of them all.

It was of JARVIS, Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers. The first lines of their codes written vertically down his back. They were his but not as much as they were Tony’s. And he loved them.

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He was with Tony on the sleepless nights, on the errors in encoding, on the nights Tony’s brightest childrens made their first steps, he was there for every second and every step and leap they make. He was as proud of them as Tony was, maybe even more.

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It’s not that his first three tattoos are not important but his fourth one would probably be the one Rhodey would say holds the most pain and joy for him.

It was on the right side of his neck, sometimes peaking through the collars of his suits and sometimes not. (+)

(+) It was of a man flying towards the sun.

People would ask if he had Icarus on his neck and he’ll say yes.
People would ask why and he’d just smile.

It was not just a man flying towards the sun. It was Tony. It was HIS Tony who flew too close to the sun he almost burned. (+)

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But he didn’t.

And for that Rhodey could feel his heart bursting with the familiar feelings of exasperation and pride whenever Tony does something like this. His heart feels so full of love and fondness even if it sprouted some thorns that suffocates him at times (+)

(+) He wanted to– No, he needed to immortalise this moment. The moment where he was close to losing the man but also one where Tony made him proud.

That’s why it went to his neck, the most visible of all places.

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Aside from all his Tony-centric tattoos, Rhodey had a couple more.

A small pepper shaker on his ribs with a smiley face sticker on it. For Pepper and Happy, the family they had built, the one Rhodey can trust with his life and everything that entails it.

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A cluster filled with snapdragon flowers on the inner side of his wrist, finishing with a circlet in honour of his mother, the strongest woman to have ever existed. Symbolising her strength and graciousness, also her ability to be cunning at times.

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Rhodey both loves and fears his mother, alright.