Black and grey Japanese style back tattoo with curling waves, a scaled creature and lotus flowers, extending down the left arm in a sleeve.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Back and arm sleeve with waves and dragon

Japanese · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A man's bare back is covered by a large tattoo of stylised waves, a scaled creature that may be a dragon, and lotus flowers, with the design continuing down the arm in a sleeve. The work uses dense black shading and fine grey tones to build depth and texture in the water and scales. The image is taken straight on from behind, so the tattoo fills most of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ray,

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The Pavilion reopened on Saturday, and Mr Okonedo has had the floor sanded until you could see your face in it. Half the town came in their Sunday shoes to look at the new ceiling. He had the painter up a ladder for six weeks, a dragon coming off the sea in a great curl of wave, scales the size of pennies, and lotus flowers caught in the spray as if someone had dropped them there. The band wouldn't start until the lamps were lit, so we all stood under it with our heads tipped back, pretending we weren't a bit frightened of it.

I danced with Lily Marsh twice, once to the waltz and once to something faster that the bandleader called a foxtrot, though nobody could have said why. Her mother watched from the chairs by the fire exit with her gloves folded in her lap. Lily says the dragon's eye follows you across the floor. I told her that's only paint and a good light, but I looked up anyway, and I'll be honest, it did seem to be watching me, the way the foam did on the Thursday we went out to the breakwater.

Mind you write back this time. Your last letter came with the corner of the page torn off, so I had to guess the end of your sentence about the coal barges at Port Said. Tell me what the water looks like out there. Tell me if it's as dark as the paint.

Your sister, Edie

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