Full colour sleeve tattoo of cartoon characters, including a green creature and a figure with spiky yellow hair, on an upper arm and forearm.

Colour anime-style sleeve on an upper arm

Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A full sleeve of colour tattoo work shows cartoon-style characters stacked down the arm, with a large green creature with red eyes at the top and a figure with spiky yellow hair in a fighting pose below. The linework is bold and outlined, with smooth cel-style shading in greens, blues, yellows and orange. The arm is photographed at an angle against a dark top, with people blurred in the background.

Upper arm Forearm Cartoon character Sleeve

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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

Dear Nan, the ferry was late again, so I've spent two hours on the quay with your old sketchbook, the one with the cracked green cover. Gwen at the chandlery says the tide turned at four and nobody's boat goes out before morning. I drew the big green fellow with the furrowed brow and the red eyes, the one who looked like Mr Pengelly when he caught us at the nets. You'd have laughed.

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Lewis came down the steps with his paint tin and wanted the yellow-haired one, the one who charges at everything with his fists balled and his hair standing up like a lit match. I told him the spikes would need three coats of ochre before they looked right, and he said that was exactly what he was counting on. We argued about whether the orange ball should have stars. He won. He always wins the colours, and I let him, because his hand is steadier than mine now.

By the time the bell rang for the evening boat, the page was full: the green face at the top, the yellow fighter mid-leap, then a crowd of little blue figures tumbling down the margin like crates sliding off the Hanna's deck in that gale. Lewis wanted to fill the last gap with the ball, glowing orange and held out over the water as if he could lob it straight at the lighthouse.

I'm posting this from the harbour office so it reaches you before the weekend. Tell Grandad the ball is nearly finished. Lewis says it's for luck, and I've decided not to argue. Your loving grandson, Tom.