Colour traditional-style tattoo of a dollar sign over a banknote portrait, surrounded by red and orange flames, on the upper arm.

Dollar sign and banknote in flames

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows a large dollar sign over a banknote portrait of a man's face, with the paper shaded in greens and greys. Flames in red, orange and yellow surround the design, with black smoke-like shading at the edges. Bold black outlines define the lettering and figure, and the colour ink dominates the composition against the pale skin.

Traditional Upper arm Dollar sign Banknote Portrait Flame Money Fire

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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

The incinerator behind the Lowther Street exchange takes its batches at eleven, when the tellers have gone home and the night porter has stopped pretending to sweep. You are the one with the shovel now, because Halloran broke his wrist on the loading hatch and nobody else wanted the overtime.

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Each bundle comes off the trolley banded and sealed, damp at the corners from a dozen wet pockets. You slit the bands with the blade you keep for that purpose and feed the notes in by the fistful. The fire takes them with a sound like a crowd turning over in its sleep. The greens blacken first, then the orange creeps across the portraits, and the old men on the twenties curl at the edges and lose their stern eyebrows one by one.

Near two, a single note slides out of a torn wrapper and sticks to the grate. It is a fifty, soft as cloth, and its face is still whole. The flames have licked the big sign on the front into a smear, but the eyes hold, steady and faintly amused, as if they have seen this trick before and know exactly who pays for it.

You stand there with the shovel for a long time. Then you fold the note once, slip it into the lining of your coat, and shut the iron door on the rest. Out on Lowther Street the rain has started. You feel the paper against your ribs all the way home, warmer than it has any right to be.