A shirtless man in a black-trousered headstand against a black background shows a large back tattoo and forearm tattoos.

Headstand pose showing a back tattoo

Back · Mixed · Photo

A bald, shirtless man balances upside down in a headstand on a dark studio floor, with his black trousers folded down toward his feet. A large back piece shows a central creature with swirling, serpent-like forms surrounded by ornamental and floral shapes, drawn in grey outlines with red and orange accents. Tattoos are also visible on both forearms, and the strong side lighting against the black backdrop makes the ink stand out.

Back Forearm Creature Serpent Floral

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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

Sit down, sit, the queue will move when the sun has decided to, and it has not decided yet. Let me tell you about the serpent of Kestrel Pass, because the men in the glass box up there have heard it and laugh, which is how you know it is true.

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The serpent lived in the gorge below the customs hut, grey as wet slate, and when it was thinking it tied itself into knots. Every knot it made, a flower opened on the rock. Where it was angry the flowers came up red as poppies, and where it was glad they came up orange as marigolds. The women of the village walked the road each spring and counted the blooms to learn what kind of year the serpent was having.

One autumn a new officer came up with a ledger and a rubber stamp, and he wanted the gorge road closed for the paperwork. He shouted down into the ravine that the creature must show its papers. The serpent answered, very politely, that it had been born long before anyone drew a line across the mountain and had no papers to show. So the officer climbed down, pressed his stamp hard against the rock, and wrote the serpent's name in his ledger in neat black capitals.

The next morning the stamp had bloomed. A ring of rust-red flowers circled the spot, and the ledger was gone from the officer's desk. Nobody has seen it since, though some say it lies under the marigolds at the bottom of the gorge. So when you go through, go slowly, and say good morning to the rock. It keeps better count than the men in the glass box.