Colour tattoo of the cartoon elephant Dumbo with large pink ears and blue eyes, outlined in black, on an upper arm.

Dumbo the elephant on an upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A cartoon elephant with large pink ears, blue eyes and a small curled trunk, drawn in a lilac and purple palette with a dark outline. The ears extend outwards on either side of the head, and the figure stands with its front feet visible at the base of the design. Soft shading gives the body and ears some dimension against the plain skin.

Traditional Upper arm Elephant Cartoon character

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nobody aboard the Corrie Lass believed Tomasz could fly, least of all Tomasz, but the crew had a bet on it anyway and I was the one holding the kitty. Forty quid in a biscuit tin behind the flour sacks, with a lid that had never once shut properly. I was the cook, so I was the bank, and the bank does not lose sleep over bets.

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The trouble started with the toy. Some grey elephant with ears like wet tea towels had been left in the lifeboat locker by the purser's daughter, and Tomasz found it while looking for a bit of spare rope. He decided it was a sign. He tied it to the rail with a length of mooring line and spent the whole of the morning watch shouting at the gulls to take notice of what was possible. The gulls took no notice. Neither did the bosun, who had seen men try to fly off the Humber before and had the scars to prove it.

Then the wind came round off the Dogger Bank, hard and sideways, and those ridiculous ears caught it like sails. The toy lifted clean off the rail, turned a slow circle over the foredeck, and sailed off towards Denmark with Tomasz running after it in his socks, bellowing that it was his. I watched from the galley hatch with a ladle in one hand and a tea towel over my shoulder, trying to decide whether I was witnessing a miracle or a waste of good rope.

The kitty went the same way that afternoon. The biscuit tin lid, which never shut, finally gave up in the gale and took forty quid with it, fluttering over the side like a flock of small brown birds. Tomasz swore it was the sign coming back for him. I told him it was the wind and the bank was closed until Tuesday.