Traditional style colour tattoo of an arrow with a red heart in the arrowhead and a red bow shape, on an upper arm, beside part of a woman's profile tattoo.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Arrow with heart tip and woman profile

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A colour tattoo of an arrow runs diagonally across the skin, with a dark arrowhead containing a red heart and a red bow shape around the shaft. Teal dots and small amber diamonds sit around the arrow, and a woman's profile tattoo with a red-lipped face is partly visible on the right. The bold black outlines and flat solid fills are typical of traditional American flash, and the image is taken close up with the tattoo filling most of the frame.

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nobody on Sandmere Pier could split a heart at forty feet except Bet Calloway, and she'd tell you so herself before you'd finished asking. Her father ran the rifle gallery under the big wheel, and he'd sworn her never to shoot for money. So she shot for the sparks instead, the little amber diamonds that flew off the tin whenever a true shot landed. Sixpence a go, and she gave the sparks back to the children in paper twists of sherbet.

Keep reading

The summer the travelling painter came, he offered to put a picture on her arm in exchange for a week of target practice. He drew an arrow, bright as a fishing float, with a black spearhead and a red heart sitting in its point. Her mother said it was vulgar. Her father said it was a fair trade, so long as the heart stayed where the arrow said it should. Bet liked the red bow looped round the shaft, the way it looked like a ribbon tied by somebody who meant it.

On the last night of the season the wind came off the sea and knocked the gallery lamp askew. Bet lined up on the tin heart at the back, the one her father had painted red for luck, and felt the arrow sit true in her hand. She didn't fire. She sat on the counter and let the swinging light drift across the boards, and when her father asked why she'd passed up the easiest shot of her life, she said some hearts are worth keeping whole.

He didn't argue. The painter came back the next spring to finish the fair's sign, found her still at the counter, and added one more diamond to her arm before he left. The paint has softened at the edges now, like the old sea wall, and Bet says the spearhead is the only part of the arrow that ever hit anything worth hitting.

More like this

Traditional colour tattoo of a paintbrush with orange flowers, dark teal leaves and a peacock feather on the forearm.
Paintbrush, flowers and peacock feather on a forearm
Traditional style colour tattoo on an upper arm showing a corked bottle with a sunset and palm trees, a red rose and green leaves, with an anchor and banner above.
Palm tree bottle and rose on an upper arm
Neo-traditional tattoo of a grey anchor wrapped in rope and entwined with red roses, teal flowers and green leaves, on the calf.
Anchor with roses and rope on a calf
Tattoo on an upper arm of red and grey shaded roses above a bold black geometric block design, with a rose bud and leaves below.
Roses and black geometric blocks on upper arm
Black and grey tattoo of a butterfly, a lily-like flower and swirling vine linework across the top of a foot.
Butterfly, flower and vines on a foot
Black and grey tattoo of an ornate key on a beaded chain above a keyhole set in filigree scrollwork, on the forearm.
Ornate key and keyhole scrollwork on an arm
Traditional-style tattoo on an arm of a hand holding an hourglass, with a yellow rose, green leaves, seed pods and a red background.
Hand holding hourglass with yellow rose
Colour botanical tattoo of pink plumeria flowers, black swirling vines and a black tribal motif with green leaves, on the top of a foot.
Plumeria and swirl vine foot tattoo
Black and grey butterfly, lily and swirling vine tattoo across the top of a foot, shaded in a realistic style.
Butterfly and lily on the top of a foot
Black and grey realism roses with swirling vine linework running down a lower leg and onto the ankle.
Black and grey roses and swirling vine on a calf
Colour tattoo of a red rose bud with green leaves and black swirling vines climbing up the ankle, shown in a close photograph of the skin.
Red rose bud and vine on an ankle
Traditional tattoo of a black swallow with a red breast, a dagger-like blade and a red rose with green leaves, on the inner forearm near the wrist.
Swallow and rose on a forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.