Blue Japanese-style wave tattoo with white foam detail running down the inside of a forearm against a plain beige wall.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Blue wave tattoo on a forearm

Japanese · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A forearm shows a large tattoo of stylised ocean waves in shades of blue, with curling crests and scalloped white foam lines. The shading is smooth and layered, with lighter blue highlights on the wave crests and darker blue at the troughs. The tattoo fills most of the frame against a plain beige wall, with a dark piece of fabric visible at the lower right.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

The fair pulled into Weston on Tuesday and the big wave painting came off the lorry first, rolled up in its canvas like a carpet. Dad swore at it the whole length of the lot. You know how he is about anything that has to hang straight. Mrs Pargeter's booth sits right on the sea wall now, so when the wind comes round off the Bristol Channel the painted water on the booth front seems to move with the real stuff.

Stop me if I've told you this, but I've been fixing the foam lines. Someone at Hull knocked a corner off the crest last season and nobody had the patience to paint the scallops back in. I did them with the finest sable Dad keeps for the lettering, one curl at a time, which took three evenings and most of my temper. The blue is that Prussian we bought off the chandler, mixed with a bit of white so the highs catch the lamps. When the last lamp is lit the crests look like they might break over the front of the booth.

Last night a boy came by with a little girl on his shoulders and asked if the wave was real. I said it was only paint. He said, no, it's the sea, look, it's got the bits of froth on top. He was right and I hadn't the heart to argue. I gave the girl a coconut for free and told her it came from a boat.

Write when you get to Aberdeen. Mind the fish, and mind the cold.

Love, Nell

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