Colour traditional-style tattoo of a brass diving helmet surrounded by pink and green coral, bubbles and palm fronds on a forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Diving helmet and coral on an arm

Traditional · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A vintage brass diving helmet with a yellow-outlined rim sits at the centre of the design, framed by pink and green branching coral. Bubbles rise in the upper right, and palm fronds and teal water fill the background. Bold dark outlines and solid colour fills give the piece a classic, flat-shaded look, shown against a black leather surface.

Traditional Forearm Coral Bubble Underwater Sea

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the tank at Pritchard's has sprung a leak along the seam, and Mr Pritchard says the Harrogate date will go ahead anyway because a silver tent full of people won't wait for plumbers. So I am going down on Saturday in the old brass helmet with a bucket of sea water and a hose that smells of tyres. The coral is still the pink papier-mâché we painted in the winter, though one branch snapped off last week and the boy from the ticket booth wore it in his buttonhole like a medal.

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Most of the audience thinks the bubbles are a trick of the pump. They are, mostly. I still count them as they rise, the way Father taught us to count the lighthouse flashes off Scarborough, and I can tell you the act has run down to nine breaths and a wave. Nobody claps for a wave any more.

Yesterday, though, a girl of about seven pressed her nose to the glass while I was rocking the helmet to make it look heavy, and she mouthed something up at me. I could not read it through the murk. I wrote the word on the back of the programme afterwards, letter by letter: FISH. Which is what she had asked, I suppose, although I hope she was asking whether I could breathe.

I am going to keep the helmet, Nell. Mr Pritchard says he'll sell the tank for scrap in August, and I'll go with whatever is left of us. Write to me at the Red Lion, Malton, and tell me what the sea is doing at home.