Black ink tattoo of a profile head wearing a bowler hat, with a cog over the eye, on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bowler hat head with cog eye on forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A solid black tattoo shows a side-profile head in a bowler hat, with the hat filled in and the face drawn as a simple outline. A cog or gear sits where the eye would be, drawn with a solid ring and a dotted centre. The image is a close, straight-on photo of the arm against a dark, cluttered background, with only black ink visible.

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

You find the gate of Hollin's orchard hanging by one hinge, and the bowler-hatted scarecrow your uncle built in the spring is leaning on it with its black face turned towards the lane. Late August, the wasps are drunk on windfalls, and the Bramleys have split their skins in the heat. Nobody has pruned since Tuesday. You were sent for a ladder and have come back with a bucket.

Keep reading

The scarecrow has a cog for an eye. Your uncle, who could not mend a kettle, swore a clockmaker in Ledbury owed him a favour and paid in gears, though you suspect the cog came off the cider press. When you tug the brim, the wheel turns with a sound like a cough, and every tree along the north wall shivers at once. Apples drop in a neat line, each one landing in the grass with a small thud, as though someone had counted them out.

You stand there with the bucket until the last one falls. Then you pick them up, one by one, and notice none are bruised. Your uncle's voice comes from the hedge, asking whether you found the ladder. You say no, that the trees have started doing it themselves, and he laughs, because he has always believed a thing only once it has already happened.

That night you wind the wheel back with a spanner, slowly, the way he showed you, and the orchard settles into the dark. In the morning the scarecrow is facing the lane again, and the grass beneath the north wall is pricked with apples, every one of them whole.

More like this

Forearm tattoo of a figure in a bowler hat with a small moustache, surrounded by black dots and blue watercolour-style splashes.
Bowler hat portrait with blue watercolour splashes
Black ink tattoo of a simplified face wearing a wide-brimmed hat, dark sunglasses and a moustache, on the forearm.
Stylised face in hat and sunglasses on an arm
Black and grey engraving-style tattoo of a headless gentleman in a suit with a question mark on his chest, with a floating head in a top hat above, on a forearm.
Headless gentleman with floating head
Black and grey bold-outline tattoo of a bob-haired woman in lightning bolt sunglasses and a leopard print cap holding a revolver, on the outer thigh.
Woman with revolver on thigh
Colour tattoo of a cartoon woman with a dark bob and glasses, framed by a blue leaf wreath, on the lower leg above the ankle.
Cartoon character in a blue leaf wreath on a lower leg
Traditional style tattoo of two sugar skull figures embracing, one in a black hat with a red flower and one in a polka dot dress, on the upper arm.
Sugar skull couple embracing on upper arm
Black and grey tattoo on an upper arm of three overlapping faceless figures in suits and ties, with a diamond-patterned jacket, in a blackwork and geometric style.
Three stacked suited figures on upper arm
Small solid black tattoo of a cartoon head with a bob haircut and black-rimmed glasses, with a tiny yellow accent, on the outer forearm.
Cartoon head with bob and glasses on a forearm
Colour tattoo on a lower leg of a cartoon character with a dark bob haircut and glasses, framed by a wreath of blue leaves, in a traditional style.
Cartoon character in a blue leaf wreath on a calf
Black ink illustration of a cartoon man's face wearing a fedora-style hat and sunglasses, tattooed on the upper arm.
Cartoon face with hat and sunglasses on upper arm
Colour traditional tattoo of the cartoon robot Bender wearing a top hat and monocle, set in an ornate gold frame on the upper arm.
Bender in an ornate gold frame on upper arm
Black and grey realism style tattoo of an eye inside a red triangle with radiating rays, above a solid black suited figure, on the lower leg.
Eye in a red triangle with a suited figure

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