Two people shown from behind with full body Japanese-style tattoos, the left in black and grey with a dragon and bird, the right in colour with a warrior figure and peonies.

Full body Japanese tattoos seen from behind

Japanese · Back · Mixed · Photo

Two standing figures are photographed from the back against a black background, each covered from shoulders to feet with tattoos. The figure on the left has a black and grey design of a dragon and a bird with fine shading and detailed scale texture. The figure on the right wears a colour design with a warrior figure, peonies, koi and other flowers in purple, pink and green, set against dark shading and a white cloth sash.

Japanese Back Shoulder Upper arm Forearm Thigh Calf Ankle Dragon Bird Warrior Peony Flower Koi Back

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Aiko,

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The sea off the Horn has been grey for nine days, the colour of the ink you grind for me on Sundays. Captain Mori says we will reach Valparaíso before the month is out, though he said the same at Montevideo. I have been repainting the figurehead again. The old one lost its face in the squall off the Falklands, so I have given the warrior back his scowl and a sword that is not quite straight, the way you taught me to leave a stroke that is honest.

Most of the crew think I am mad to spend the lamp oil on it. Kamo, the cook, says a ship with a warrior at her prow will wake the storms. I told him the storms are already awake and the warrior is only tired. He laughed and gave me the last of the peony pigment, which he had been saving for his own bowl of rice, so you can see how far the sea has bent us.

Yesterday a koi came up in the wake, a big orange one, swimming against the foam as if it had business up the bow. The lookout swore it was a sign. I only thought of the screen in your mother's house, the dragon and phoenix fighting over a single cloud, and how you once said the colour never wins because it arrives late. Perhaps you were right. The gold on the koi's back had gone to lead in the swell.

I am sending this with the pilot boat at Valparaíso. Keep the lamp lit at the window when you can. If the paint has held, you will know me by the warrior before you see my face.