Colour neo-trad tattoo on the ribs showing a red cartoon bird, cupcake, candies, ribbon and gemstones.

Candy and bird side piece on ribs

Neo-trad · Ribs · Colour · Photo

A large colour tattoo covers the side of the ribcage with cartoon birds, a pink-iced cupcake, swirled and peppermint sweets, a pink ribbon and two faceted gemstones. The outlines are bold and dark, with soft shading and glossy highlights on the sweets and gems. Bright reds, pinks, teals and greens dominate against the skin, and the design wraps vertically down the torso.

Neo-trad Ribs Bird Cupcake Candy Lollipop Ribbon Diamond Gemstone Sprinkles

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Marisol had sold sweets from the back of an old Airstream on Route 9 for eleven years, and in all that time the red bird had never once paid. It arrived at ten past seven each morning, perched on the awning rope, and stared at the cupcakes with one enormous eye while the heat rose off the tarmac like something poured.

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The blue one was worse. It came in on the westerly wind and wanted the ribbon. Marisol had knotted a length of pink satin to the hatch handle so the till drawer wouldn't rattle, and the blue bird had decided this was a gift. Every morning it unpicked a loop and carried it off towards the salt flats, where the peppermints she'd thrown out last summer were still going soft in the sun.

On Thursday a lorry driver pulled in for coffee and asked whether the birds were hers. "They belong to the road," she said, and handed him a spiral lollipop. He watched the red bird drop a sugar gem the colour of a stop sign onto the counter, then another, until there were four, and he asked if she planned to call someone about it. She said the birds had never been much for paperwork.

She left the last strip of ribbon on the step that night. By morning it was gone, and in its place sat a faceted red sweet, glossy as a bead of wet paint. Marisol pocketed it, wrapped a spare cupcake in wax paper, and hung it from the awning rope for the red bird, which, for once, looked almost pleased.