Fox and yellow rose on a forearm

Neo-trad · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A fox head in profile dominates the forearm, drawn with bold black outlines and fine hair detail. Orange, red and yellow fills give the fox and a large yellow rose warm, solid colour, while black scrollwork leaves and a pale grey circle sit behind. The composition runs vertically along the arm against a dark background.

Neo-trad Forearm Fox Rose Flower Leaves Scrollwork Animal

Find an artist for this

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

Dear Nell, The fox is back. I know you think I've been making things up since the funeral, but she came up Division Street again at half one this morning and sat under the shutter of Pardoe's flower shop as if she owned the place. Her coat was the colour of the bricks on the Co-op wall, bright wherever the streetlight caught it, and she had that stillness foxes get when they've decided something about you.

Keep reading

You'll remember Mr Pardoe is shutting up shop in March. He's been giving away the spent stems to anyone who asks, and I've been carrying them home because the window above the sink feels too bare without something yellow in it. The fox doesn't want the roses, I don't think. She wants the dark behind the buckets, or the smell of wet leaves, or whatever it is a fox finds in a city at that hour that the rest of us stopped looking for years ago.

Last Thursday I left the back door open for her, which was daft, and she came as far as the step. She looked at the kitchen light for a long time, then turned and trotted off over the car park with something pale in her mouth. A petal, I'm fairly sure. I stood there in my socks feeling oddly robbed, as if she'd taken the one thing I'd been saving.

I'm going to sit on the step again tonight with the light off. If she comes, I'll tell you. If she doesn't, I've still got the roses in the jar on the sill, and they're holding up better than I am. Write back and tell me what Leeds is like after dark. Love, Ruth