Two forearms lie side by side on white bedding, one with a black koi fish tattoo and the other with a red koi fish tattoo, both in a brush-like Japanese style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Black and red koi tattoos on forearms

Japanese · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

Two arms rest close together on white bedding, each showing a koi fish tattoo. The fish on the left is black with bold, tapering brush-like strokes and dark ink blots, while the fish on the right is red with similar flowing outlines and splashes. The soft natural light and plain background keep the focus on the linework and the contrast between the two colours.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Walter, The pond behind the Winter Garden has finally iced over, so Mr Ashdown has stopped feeding the koi, and the black one has taken to sulking under the lily pads. You would laugh. I have been taking my dinner out to the bench by the pump, the way you used to, to watch the two of them circle.

Keep reading

The red one came from a man who won him at the Margate fair the summer before the war and could never keep him in a bucket long enough to get him home. The black one was here before any of us. Mrs Pryce says they have not once swum in the same stretch of water at the same time in all the years she has worked the cloakroom. When one rises, the other sinks, like a pair of dancers who were each given the wrong steps and too proud to ask.

Last Saturday the band played that waltz you could never get right, and I stood by the hatch with my ticket stub in my fist and watched the couples turn under the chandeliers. Afterwards I walked out into the frost with a jug of warm water, meaning to free the pond's edge for the old pump. There they were, both of them, pressed together in the one patch of open water, nose to tail, fins stirring as if they had only just agreed on something.

I have decided they were never rivals. They were only waiting for the music to stop long enough for someone to notice. Come home soon, and bring your good shoes. Yours, Edie

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