Black and grey realism style tattoo of a Hello Kitty face styled as a sugar skull, with filigree ornaments, a diamond, a heart-shaped nose and a bow, on the upper back near the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hello Kitty sugar skull on upper back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows the Hello Kitty head outline with a sugar skull design, filled with ornate scrolling filigree, a small diamond above the nose, a heart-shaped nose and two flower motifs on the cheeks. The bow on the right side is shaded to look three-dimensional, and small roses appear in the corners of the ears. The work is entirely black and grey, with bold outlines, soft shading and light highlights across the design, photographed on upper back skin.

Realism Back Hello kitty Sugar skull Filigree Diamond Bow Heart Flower Rose

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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

The bus lets you down at the bend where the tarmac gives up and the road becomes two pale ruts through the creosote. Your aunt's box rides on your knees, tied with string, forty sugar skulls wrapped in newspaper that is now mostly the colour of the dust. You know the number because she counted them twice at the kitchen table and made you say it back to her.

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The petrol station at Vado Seco has one pump and a dog asleep beneath it. Inside, Mrs Ybarra, who has sold you Fanta since you were small, looks at the box and laughs. 'Still painting cats on the dead?' she says. You tell her the cat is the only thing your aunt would ever put on a skull, because a cat knows how to leave a room without anyone noticing. She takes two skulls for the shelf by the till and pays you in coins that have been in her apron all week.

Past the last cattle grid the road bends toward the old chapel. Someone has left a jam jar of marigolds on the step and a single red bow tied to the gate. You set the box down in the shade and unwrap the top skull. The diamond on its brow catches the sun the way your aunt promised it would, and the heart-shaped hole in the nose is as black as the chapel doorway.

You count them again. Thirty-eight. You untie the bow from the gate, tuck it under the string on the box, and leave the lid open so the wind can choose which ones to keep.