Neo-traditional colour tattoo of an elephant head wearing a jewelled headdress with teal leaves, placed on the outer thigh.

Elephant head with jewelled headdress on thigh

Neo-trad · Thigh · Colour · Photo

A large elephant head faces forward, wearing a headdress of three teal leaves above a red gem set in a beaded gold chain. Green leaves frame the head, and the elephant's trunk curls along the lower edge of the design. Bold black outlines define the forms, with grey shading on the skin and red, teal and green used for the accents.

Neo-trad Traditional Thigh Elephant Headdress Jewel Bead Leaves Feather

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lorry came up the lane on the second Sunday of January, its canvas sagging with frost, and Dad swore at the gate until it swung. Inside, chained to a mat of straw, was Duchess, an old elephant with skin like wet slate and a headdress the showman had sewn for her years before. Three teal leaves stood up from her brow, faded to pink at the tips, and a red glass jewel hung on a string of gold beads that rattled whenever she shifted her weight.

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Nobody on the farm knew what to do with her. Mum wanted the old barn cleared, Dad wanted the money the council had offered for the top field, and I wanted nothing more than to sit on the feed bin with a flask and watch her breathe steam into the cold. She ate turnips by the dozen. She let me lay my hand on her cheek, which was rough as bark, and she never once looked at the gate.

Mr Penrose came back in February, thinner than the stories said, with a shoebox of letters and a ticket stub from a fair that no longer existed. He wanted the headdress. I held the jewel in my palm and felt how light it was. It's glass, I said. He gave a short laugh. Course it is. Nothing she wore ever cost more than a pint. Then he untied the beads himself, slowly, and let them drop into my hands.

After the lorry had gone, Duchess stood at the wire with her trunk raised, sniffing the frosted hedge. I hung the beads from the top rail where she could reach them. By morning the sun had caught the glass, and she curled her trunk around it and kept it there.