Close-up of a black outlined bow tattoo on the inside of a lower lip, with the lip pulled down to show it.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bow tattoo on inner lower lip

Other · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows a small bow tattoo drawn in black outline on the inner surface of a lower lip, with the lip pulled down by fingers. The linework is simple and even, with the bow shape filled only by the skin tone around it. The image is a tight close-up with the teeth and fingers visible, and the background is a dark top and loose hair.

Other Bow Lip

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

Rain came through the tarpaulin in a thin line along the seam above our stall, and Mum slid a jam jar under it without looking up. We sold ribbon at Thursday market for thirty-one years, satin and grosgrain and the stiff velvet the church women wanted for their hymn-book markers, and in all that time the weather had never once stopped anybody buying a bow. Shoppers came in under the awnings with their hoods up and asked for a metre of something they could not quite name.

Keep reading

My sister Vi tied the bows for the stall. She could make a double loop one-handed while sorting buttons with the other, and she was never satisfied until both loops sat exactly the same size. She spent a whole winter practising on the tails of her own cardigan, pulling and unpicking, and when she finally got one right she said it looked ready to fly off the table.

Then came the Saturday she didn't turn up. Mum said nothing for an hour, then wound a length of black grosgrain round her wrist and asked me to measure it. I cut it at forty centimetres, the length Vi always used, and tied it the way she had taught me, slowly, pulling the loops even. Mum took it from my hands and pinned it to the tarpaulin rope above the jar, right where the drip came through.

By four the rain had drifted east and the light lay low and yellow across the car park. The bow was still there, one loop a little fuller than the other, and I left it exactly as it was.