Realistic colour tattoo sleeve on a calf showing a velociraptor, a triceratops, a tyrannosaurus head and a volcanic sunset over water.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dinosaur scene sleeve on a calf

Realism · Calf · Colour · Photo

Three views of the same lower leg show a dinosaur scene with a close-up velociraptor in green grass at the front, a red-tinged triceratops and a tyrannosaurus head on the side, and a volcano erupting over a lake at sunset in the background. The shading is smooth and detailed, with strong highlights on the scales and reflections on the water. Warm oranges, reds and greens dominate the palette, with dark greys and browns used for shadow and the skulls near the bottom.

Realism Calf Dinosaur Lake Sunset Grass Fern Skull

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, The big top came down in Shrewsbury on Tuesday, and I'm writing this from the back of the lorry with the paint tins stacked round me like a fort. Mr Ashdown finally sold the elephant to a farm in Wales, which means the dinosaur tent is the only thing left that pulls a crowd. Thirty pence a head to walk between the painted cloths and be frightened by a man in a rubber jaw. I did the backdrop myself, the volcano and the lake going up in sunset, and I'm prouder of that sky than of anything I've done since art school.

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Yesterday a boy stood in front of the little raptor for twenty minutes. Not the rubber one, the painted one on the lower panel, crouched in the grass with its yellow eye on the viewer. He asked me whether it could see him. I told him it was waiting for his mum to stop talking so it could get a proper look. He laughed, and then he asked if the volcano was real. I said only in the sense that everything is real if you look at it hard enough, which is the sort of thing I say when I have no answer.

The skulls at the bottom of the panel I'd nearly painted over twice. Ashdown wanted them brighter, bone-white, for the children. I refused. Skulls should look like they've been lying in the mud for a few million years, and I told him so. He docked my wages a fiver, and I let him, because I'd rather be poor and honest about dead things than rich and cheerful about them.

The tent comes down on Sunday. I'm keeping the lake panel, rolled up under my bunk, and I'll bring it to you at Christmas. Put it on the wall above your cooker and tell me the sunset still works in a kitchen. Love, Dad