Realism tattoo of a fishing bobber floating in rippled water with a rod and line above, and a grey goldfish on a hook with bubbles, on the upper arm.

Goldfish on a hook and bobber in water

Realism · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A fishing rod curves across the top of the arm, with its line running down to a yellow and orange bobber floating in shaded, concentric ripples. Below, a grey goldfish with a yellow eye is caught on a hook, with three bubbles rising beside it. The shading is soft and detailed, with the water and fish rendered in greys and the bobber and eye adding small areas of colour.

Realism Upper arm Goldfish Bubble

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dora had cast the same spot every evening since the rain stopped, and every evening the bobber dipped at the moment the church clock across the mill pond finished striking seven. She had stopped expecting carp. The line tightened, the rod bent double, and up came a goldfish no longer than her palm, scales the colour of old pennies, staring at her as though she had been rude.

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"You've had three goes at my hook," it said, or she decided it did, because the bubbles rising beside its mouth made a sort of word. "Most people your age have given up on the water."

Dora was nine, and nobody had ever told her what to do with a talking fish. She unhooked it carefully with her grandfather's pliers and asked what it wanted in return. It asked for nothing. It only wanted someone to notice the ripples once the wind had dropped, when the water was still enough to show a thing properly.

She let it go into the reeds and went home for her tea. Her grandfather said the pond had been empty of goldfish since the war. Dora said nothing, but the next evening she was back on the bank at seven with the rod across her knees. She still goes back. The line stays slack now, and the bobber settles into its rings, and three bubbles break the surface beside it, and she lets the clock finish striking before she reels in nothing at all.