Black and grey tattoo on a calf of an astronaut standing on the moon, holding a bunch of balloons shaped like planets, with Saturn at the top.

Astronaut holding planet balloons on a calf

Calf · Black and grey · Photo

An astronaut stands on a cratered surface, seen from behind, holding a bunch of strings tied to balloons drawn as planets. Saturn with its rings sits at the top, with banded and cratered planets below. The linework is fine and the planets are shaded with soft grey gradients, while the spacesuit uses darker shading for contrast. The design is in black and grey and fills a tall vertical composition on the lower leg.

Calf Astronaut Planet Balloon Saturn Moon Space

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

Dear Eddie, the balloons have been in the potting shed since Tuesday, and your dad will not stop talking about them. Seven of them, bought from the Co-op on the high street, each one a different planet, because the shop only had the cheap foil kind and Mr Okafor had pinned a note to the till saying Jupiter was out of stock. I tied them to the handle of the wheelbarrow and they nodded over the runner beans all afternoon like they were waiting for a bus.

Keep reading

Saturn was the one that wouldn't sit straight. Its ring kept catching on the apple tree, so in the end I left it tangled up there, and it's still there now, slowly losing air over the compost heap. I thought you'd laugh. You always said the rings were the only honest bit of the whole solar system because they looked like someone had drawn them on with a ruler.

The marrows have gone mad this year, nearly the size of the moon I'd say, and I keep meaning to lift a spud for you to take on the train. Last night I sat out on the step with a flask and watched the real one come up over the fence. Your grandad would have made a joke about it being a bit of a cheat with all the light. I didn't feel like joking. I just thought of you walking about up there in your boots on something that isn't dirt, with the wind in your ears, and I hoped somebody had remembered to put a rope on you.

Write back and tell me the planets are where you left them. Send a photo if they let you have a camera. Love from your nan, who is not going near the shed until the balloons come down.