Traditional style colour tattoo of a cherubic face with closed eyes and a red flower on the inner forearm, beside a yellow crescent moon and red star.

Cherub face with flower on forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A cherubic face with closed eyes, rosy cheeks and yellow hair sits within a red flower or hood, outlined in black. Nearby are a yellow crescent moon, a red star, a blue and grey wave shape and partial black lettering, all on a pale forearm against a dark background. The bold outlines and flat areas of solid colour give the piece a classic, graphic look.

Traditional Forearm Cherub Face Flower Moon Star Wave Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nell had been sent over on the ferry with a tin of sea-blue paint and instructions not to touch the lettering until the varnish was dry. The boatyard on Scarra smelled of tar and wet rope, and the old cherub was propped against the shed wall where it had sat since the Margaret Ruth went down off Gannet Skerry. Her cheeks had faded to the colour of weak tea. Someone had painted a red hood of petals behind her head, and the gold on her curls had flaked to nothing.

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Old Hamish Tully, who had carved her forty years back, watched from a stool with his pipe cold in his fist. "You'll want the cheeks brighter," he said. "She was always blushing at the men who swore in front of her."

Nell mixed the rose red until it matched the petals, then the yellow for the hair, then stopped. The moon on the transom had to go up first, a crescent to tell the crew it was a night launch, with a wave beneath it in the blue they'd used for the hull. Hamish's wife had painted the star years before. Nell gave the cherub her lids closed, a small sleepy curve for each eye, because the old carving had always looked as if she was dreaming of land.

When the varnish cured, they hauled her onto the slip. Hamish spat on his palm, rubbed a thumb across the rosy cheek, and nodded once. "There. Now she can keep her eyes shut on the way out."