Back of a woman with long red braided hair, showing a blue and teal tattoo of dark spirals on her upper back near the shoulder blade.

Blue spiral tattoo on upper back

Back · Colour · Photo

A photograph taken from behind of a woman with long red hair worn in braids over one shoulder. A round tattoo sits on the upper back near the shoulder blade, filled with teal and blue ink and dark spiral swirls. The background is grass and the light is natural.

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 Tamsin,

Keep reading

The tide turned on Tuesday and the Gyre ran so hard off Skerrow that the boats had to be dragged up the shingle by oxen. You will say I am making it sound grander than it is. I am not. The water goes round in bands of green and blue, and if you stand on the north wall long enough you can watch it draw itself inward like thread on a spindle.

Mother still will not let anyone cut the spiral into the harbour stone, though the old men keep asking. She says a shape that turns that often should be left to turn on its own. So I did the next best thing. I took charcoal and a little lamp-black from the chandler and drew the Gyre on the inside of my wrist, then on the back of the ferry ledger, then on the lintel of the byre where the cat sleeps. Each time it came out a little tighter.

I have decided to cross to the mainland at the spring equinox, when the Gyre stays quiet for the length of one slack tide. Father rowed there once and never told us what he found, only that the water was the colour of a kingfisher and nobody drowned. I want to see whether it is the same colour from the other side.

If the post is slow, do not worry. I will send word from the first inn with a roof that does not leak. And if you find this pinned to the byre door, know that the cat has the ledger and the Gyre is drawn on my back, where I cannot see it but can feel it turn each time I pull the oars.

More like this

Close photo of a brown Celtic knotwork band tattoo on the upper arm of a woman with long red hair.
Celtic knot armband on upper arm
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a crescent moon, a moth and a rose with leaves, running from the shoulder down the upper arm of a woman with pink hair.
Crescent moon, moth and rose on upper arm
Back view of a person with long dreadlocks and a teal headwrap, showing a large black sun tattoo across the upper back and a butterfly tattoo on the shoulder.
Sun design across a back with butterfly on shoulder
Back view of a woman with a long teal braid and a small fine line tattoo at the nape of her neck.
Small neck tattoo with teal braid
Rear view of a person's neck and bare shoulders showing a small fine line script tattoo just behind the ear.
Fine line script on the neck
Colour tattoo reproducing Van Gogh's The Starry Night on a woman's upper back and shoulder, with swirling blue and yellow sky and a dark cypress tree.
Starry Night tattoo on the upper back
Black ink butterflies rise up the spine and a musical staff with notes sits low on the back of a woman in a red dress, in a garden setting.
Butterflies and music notes across a back
Fine line black outline tattoo of a stretching cat with whiskers and a curled tail, on the upper back below the nape of a woman with her hair tied up.
Cat outline on the upper back
Traditional-style rose tattoo on the upper arm and small star tattoos near the wrist of a person with raised arms, seen from behind with a bare back.
Rose and star tattoos with raised arms
Black feather-shaped tattoo on the upper back of a person seen from behind, with a platinum blonde braid and a patterned wrap over one shoulder.
Small dark feather tattoo on upper back
Back of a person's neck and shoulders showing a black and grey octopus tattoo with dotted shading, with a colour rose tattoo on the upper arm at the left.
Octopus tattoo across the upper back and neck
Black fine line geometric tattoo of arrows and diamond shapes along the side of a ribcage, with long curly hair falling beside it.
Geometric arrow tattoo on the ribs

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