Colourful neo-traditional style tattoo on the upper arm showing a cartoon cat with a red bow, a giraffe, a pink strawberry ice cream cone and purple bubbles.

Cartoon cat, giraffe and strawberry ice cream on upper arm

Neo-trad · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

Three side-by-side views of a sleeve-style tattoo on the upper arm. A cartoon cat wearing a red bow sits in front of a giraffe head, above a pink strawberry ice cream cone with dripping icing, with a purple bow, heart, diamond and bubbles around it. Bold black outlines and soft pastel shading in pink, green, orange and purple fill the design, which is set against plain skin.

Neo-trad Upper arm Cat Giraffe Strawberry Ice cream Bow Heart Diamond Bubble Bead

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Gilda had never reached the top shelf of the freezer at the Pier Kiosk, so for nine summers the giraffe had done it for her, folding his long neck over the counter and lowering the tubs down with his teeth. The cat, who sat on the stool by the till and wore the same red bow she had worn since the kiosk opened, kept the tally in pencil on the back of a napkin. Nobody had ever asked the cat to do anything else, and she liked it that way.

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On the last Saturday of August the freezer gave up. By eleven the strawberry mix had softened into a pink slump that slid down the cones and dripped onto the pavement. The gulls arrived before the queue did. Gilda stood with her hands full of sticky spoons and felt the summer tipping sideways. The giraffe looked at the cat. The cat looked at the sea, where bubbles from the turning tide were popping along the edge of the sand like a row of tiny lamps going out.

Then the cat slid off her stool, took a length of purple ribbon from the cash drawer, and tied it around the one tub that had not melted, a sealed box of sugared hearts meant for the wedding in the hall. She pushed it across the counter with one paw. The heart on the lid had a small dent in it. 'Sell them as diamonds,' the giraffe said through a mouthful of spoon. 'Nobody argues with a diamond.'

They sold every box by two o'clock. Gilda wrote the prices on a napkin beneath the cat's tally, and the cat, pleased, drew a small bubble beside the total. When the pier lights came on that night, the giraffe was still folded over the counter, humming, and the last strawberry cone stood upright in the freezer, as neat as a promise kept.