Flash-style illustration of a cartoon woman with glasses and a striped headband, framed by banners reading I'm no hero, I put on my bra, one boob at a time, with roses and daisies.

Cartoon character with banners and roses

Colour · Flash

A cartoon woman with dark bob hair, round glasses and a striped turquoise and pink headband faces forward, with a daisy tucked above her ear. Blue ribbon banners curl above and below her and carry the lettering, with pink, purple and yellow roses and small blue leaves filling the space around her shoulders. The flat colours sit on a pale blue background, and the composition is centred and symmetrical.

Cartoon character Banner Rose Daisy Flower Lettering Glasses Headband

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

The ringmaster wanted new banners for the last fortnight of the season, and he wanted them by Thursday. Dunmore's Travelling Circus had been shrinking since the big top lost its centre pole to rot in March. We had four lorries left, eleven performers and a tent that let rain in at two seams. I ran wardrobe, which meant I also ran the paint pots, because nobody else would balance on a step ladder in the wet.

Keep reading

I painted the new one on calico in the caravan with the door propped open for the light. A blue ribbon curled over the top, pink and purple roses ran along the bottom, and across the middle went the words I had been practising since February. Dorothy from the trapeze read it over my shoulder and laughed until she had to sit on the tow bar. "Nobody will book us for that," she said. "Good," I said, "then they'll leave us alone."

On the last night the audience was three children, a spaniel and a man from the council who had come to check the fire exits. We hung the banner at the entrance anyway, and I watched him stop in front of it with his clipboard half raised. He read it twice. Then he took four tickets from his coat pocket, paid for them with exact change, and asked who had painted the roses.

Afterwards we folded the calico into the costume trunk, ribbon side out so it would show first when we unpacked in Bristol. The rain had found the new seam by then. Dorothy hummed something from the old show while she stacked the spangled dresses, and I sat on the trunk lid and listened to the lorries start one by one in the dark.