Traditional style tattoo of a blue inhaler wrapped in a grey banner reading Ain't easy bein' wheezy, on a limb.

Blue inhaler with banner reading Ain't easy bein' wheezy

Traditional · Other · Mixed · Photo

A blue asthma inhaler is shown with a grey ribbon banner wrapped around its body, reading Ain't easy bein' wheezy in black capitals. The linework is bold and dark, with blue shading on the inhaler and grey shading on the banner. The tattoo fills the centre of the frame against plain skin.

Traditional Other Banner Ribbon Lettering

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

Mavis Tully found the blue inhaler on the bottom stair at half past six, the morning after the Pemberton Silver Band had arrived for their coastal weekend. The cap was chewed flat and the mouthpiece was furred with lint from somebody's cardigan pocket. She knew whose it was before she had finished her tea: Dennis Hale, third floor back, who had been sneezing into the gravy since Thursday and blaming the sea.

Keep reading

She carried it up in her apron pocket, past the framed print of Weston pier and the tuba case that had been propped against the landing wall like a sleeping relation. Dennis answered in his vest, grey hair flattened on one side, and took the inhaler without thanks. "Ain't easy, bein' wheezy," he said, as if quoting a song he'd given up on years ago, and shut the door before she could reply.

At breakfast she told the other lodgers that sea air was supposed to be good for chests. Dennis came down late, sat by the window and said the sea air was the whole trouble, it got into the lungs with the salt and the gulls and the damp off the prom. Mavis offered to ring the surgery. He said the surgery had been ringing him, every Tuesday, to ask if he was still alive, and that he'd tell them when he'd decided.

That afternoon the band marched the length of the front in their navy caps, Dennis at the back on cornet, puffing like a kettle on the boil. Mavis watched from the bay window with a tea towel over her shoulder. Halfway along, the inhaler flashed blue in the sun as he lifted it, one quick pull, and then he went straight on into the last bar. The whole front seemed to hum with it. Mavis left the windows open for the rest of the week.