Neo-trad style tattoo of a grey cameo portrait in a black ornate frame, set on a pink oval with dangling bead chains, on the inner forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Cameo in ornate frame on a forearm

Neo-trad · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A woman's profile in grey shading sits inside a black ornate frame on the forearm, with the cameo set against a pink oval background. Black bead chains loop out from the frame on either side and trail down the arm. The photo is taken outdoors on grass, with a floral dress visible at the top of the frame and the hand at the bottom.

Neo-trad Forearm Cameo Portrait Frame Bead Chain Profile

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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 brooch in the biscuit tin under the stairs, beneath the rent books and a clay pipe that was never lit. The shell cameo has a pink ground the colour of the inside of a foxglove, and the lady carved on it turns her face from you as if someone has called her name from another room. Black jet beads hang from the ornate frame in two loose loops, and when you lift it they catch on the wool of your cardigan and will not let go.

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Your father worked the Harrow Pit for thirty-one years and never bought anything without a use, so you turn the pawn ticket over twice before you believe it. It is dated March, in a pawnbroker's copy hand on Front Street: one brooch, shell, with jet, two pounds. Beside it, in pencil, someone has written redeemed and a date in June. That date is the Thursday before the roof came in at the east face. Your brother Tom paid the money back, every penny of it, and never said a word.

Behind the tin there is a page torn from the back of a hymn book, and on it his square capitals: FOR ADA, NOT MAM, SHE'LL ONLY WORRY. You sit on the bottom stair with the beads cold across your knuckles and picture him walking down the hill with his pay packet, standing at that counter, and counting it out in halfpennies.

Pin it on, the way she used to, and walk up to the pit gate before the shift changes. Stand where the cages come up and let the lady look past you at the men coming out grey-faced into the light, because she is the only thing he thought you should be wearing today.