Colour tattoo of a bearded gnome in a red pointed hat sitting on a yellow swing with green ropes, in a realistic style, on skin.

Gnome on a swing tattoo

Realism · Colour · Photo

A bearded gnome with a tall red hat sits on a small yellow swing hung from two green ropes. The figure is rendered with soft shading, with detail in the grey beard, rosy cheeks and hands gripping the ropes. Red, teal, yellow and grey ink are centred in the frame against plain, lightly marked skin.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ned,

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The big top came down on Tuesday, and I'm writing this from the back of the caravan while the lads load the last of the poles onto the lorry. Mr Pell says the council wants the field cleared by Friday, so that's that for Pell's Travelling Circus, est. 1931, or whatever it says on the side of the wagon. You'd laugh to see the swing. The ropes have gone grey and the seat is held together with wire, but Mabel insisted it go on the lorry with everything else.

You remember the gnome. Dad won him at the Stockport goose fair and bolted him to the seat so the kids would have someone to wave at while the trapeze lads warmed up. Every night for thirty years somebody has climbed up to start him swinging. Yesterday it was me. I sat him in his red hat and gave him a push, and he went up and back, up and back, his painted beard catching the work lights. Nobody came to the field to watch, which is fair enough. The Hendersons from the cottages came over with a flask of tea and stood by the fence. Old Walter cried, so I cried too, and we all pretended it was the wind.

I'm keeping the gnome. I haven't told Mabel yet. Come up at the weekend and help me hang him in the garden, and we'll see whether he still remembers the way to the sky.

Love, Tilda

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