Black and grey dotwork tattoo on an upper arm showing a man whose head is a striped circus big top with a moustache, ruffled collar and fleur-de-lis patterned scarf.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Circus tent head portrait on upper arm

Dotwork · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a male bust whose head is replaced by a striped circus big top with a flag on its spire, and a moustache sits below the tent's curtained entrance. The figure wears a ruffled collar and a scarf patterned with fleur-de-lis, all rendered in fine linework and stippled dotwork shading. The design is entirely black ink in greys and is placed across the upper arm and shoulder, filling most of the frame against a dark background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ottilie, the lamps went out on the Tuesday and Mr Crane has not forgiven the weather for it. We are back under the big top at Pendle Green, though the canvas has a patch the shape of Wales where the rain got in, and the ringmaster insists it is a feature. I have been sewing it myself with the good thread you left behind, the red and white, because the stripes must be unbroken or the crowd gets restless.

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You asked in your last letter whether the tent still goes up in the same order, and it does, though Mr Crane now stands on the lower pole and calls it his crown. The strongman has grown a moustache to match the bearded lady's dignity, and the boy who sells toffee apples has taken the scarf you knitted him for the fleur-de-lis pattern, which he says keeps the wasps off. Nobody has the heart to tell him it was meant to be a border for the programme.

The man in the photograph of the Clarendon Hotel, the one you pinned above the ticket booth, came back on Thursday. He stood at the flap for an hour in his ruffled collar and asked after you by name. I told him you had gone to sea, which is true enough. He tipped his hat at the canvas as though it were a face he knew, then walked off down the lane with the lantern still lit, so I suppose the tent has its own regulars now. Write when you can. The flag is still flying, love, if the wind lets it.

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