Two traditional-style tattoos on the backs of a person's thighs above the knees, each showing a red and pink bow with a dangling charm and a green or black helmet.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bow and helmet tattoos on the backs of two thighs

Traditional · Thigh · Mixed · Photo

Two tattoos sit on the back of the thighs above the knees, each showing a pink and red bow with a helmet and a dangling charm. The left design has a green helmet and the right has a dark grey helmet, both with bold black outlines and flat solid fills. The photograph is taken from behind on a pebble beach, with a patterned pink and teal pair of shorts at the top of the frame.

Traditional Thigh Bow Helmet Charm Heart Pendant

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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Mam says I'm not to write to you at the face, so I'm posting this to the pit office and they'll have to find you. The bows are finished. Mrs Okafor's girl did them on her kitchen table with the good ribbon from the Saturday market, pink with the red spots, and she wouldn't take a penny for the second because she said it was for a lad who once stood up for her at the gates. I told her that was you. She said it sounded like you.

The helmets came out better than I hoped. The green one has the little visor slit I drew three times before I got it right, and the dark one has that grille across the mouth that looks like it's holding its breath. I hung a brass key from the first and a heart from the second, the heart cut from the tin that used to hold Gran's buttons. When I walk to the shop the two of them swing about and tick against each other like they're having a row.

You'll be cross that I'm making a fuss about it. You bet me a shilling on Sunday that you'd be up before the next shift change, and I said you'd never manage it, so you'd better come up and pay. Don't think the bow is a bribe. It's a receipt.

Keep your lamp lit and your boots dry. I'll be at the gate on Friday with the key in my pocket, and when you come through I'll unlock the bit of you that's been waiting all week to be teased about it.

Nell