Two matching forearm tattoos: a black outlined heart with a crown and keyhole over pink wash on the left, and a black key with a teal wash on the right.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Heart and key forearm tattoos

Forearm · Mixed · Photo

Two forearm tattoos sit side by side, one showing a heart outline with a small crown on top and a keyhole in the centre, the other a single key with a blade-like bit. Bold black linework is softened by loose pink and teal washes and splatter-like marks around both designs. The photo is taken straight on against a plain background, with the two arms shown together.

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

The gate at Corran Wharf has been shut since the cranes came down, and nobody on the night shift has the key. So tonight you are kneeling on wet cobbles at two in the morning, a pick in one hand and a torch clamped between your teeth, while the foreman stamps his feet at the far end of the lane. The lock is old and sulky. Its plate is shaped like a heart, with a little iron crown perched on top, as if the thing believed itself a king.

Keep reading

You work the pins one at a time and listen to them click. Somewhere a bottle rolls down the slope towards the river. Rain has washed the paint off the gate in pink streaks, and the fish merchant's neon across the water bleeds teal into the puddles, so the whole lane looks like a picture left out in weather. Each pin you lift brings the same question back to you: who locks a gate this carefully and then throws away the only key?

The last pin gives with a sound like a held breath let go. The gate swings, and on the inside bar, tied with faded ribbon, hangs a second key with its blade worn to a bent tooth. Tucked beneath it is a card in a looping hand: 'Keep this one. The other stays with the man who shut it.' The foreman is still waiting at the end of the lane. You pocket the card, pull the gate closed behind you, and leave the lock hanging open, because some things are only worth opening once.

More like this

Two side-by-side photographs of a realistic tattoo of a jigsaw puzzle piece with a torn, bloodied edge and red drips on the inner forearm.
Puzzle piece with dripping wound on forearm
Black and grey tattoo of three arrows tied together with a cord on the upper arm, with grey shading on the fletching.
Three arrows bound with cord on upper arm
Two side-by-side neo-trad tattoos on skin: a grey shaded heart-shaped padlock and a grey skeleton key, both entwined with pink ribbons.
Heart padlock and skeleton key tattoos
Black and grey dotwork lotus tattoo with a solid semicolon above and below it on the inner forearm.
Lotus with semicolons on a forearm
Black linework dandelion seeds blowing away, with teal and purple watercolour splashes, tattooed on a person's upper back near the shoulder blade.
Dandelion seeds with watercolour splashes on upper back
Small black and grey anatomical heart tattoo with outlined chambers and vessels on a forearm.
Anatomical heart on a forearm
Two matching realistic ornate key tattoos with blue gem details, one on each forearm, with the arms touching at the wrists.
Matching ornate key tattoos on forearms
Black linework tattoo of a pair of antlers with a crescent moon and an arrow between them, on the upper arm near the elbow.
Antlers, crescent moon and arrow on upper arm
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a bow and arrow with feathered fletching and dotted guide lines, placed on the upper arm.
Bow and arrow on upper arm
Fine line black key with a heart-shaped bow on the inner wrist of a hand held palm-down, with red nail varnish visible.
Heart-bowed key on the inner wrist
Three black and grey dotwork tattoos: a skull with peonies and a fern on the thigh, a moth over a split skull on the upper arm, and a skull with leaves on the upper arm.
Skulls with peonies, fern and moth tattoos
Black and grey realism tattoo of a feather above an arrowhead on the inner forearm, with red wrapping at the shaft.
Feather and arrowhead on a forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.