Black and grey key tattoo with a red polka-dot bow and a castle at its base, shown on a forearm.

Key with mouse-ear bow and castle

Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A key design with an ornate filigree head shaped like a round head with two ears, set above a red polka-dot bow. The shaft runs down to a grey castle silhouette at the base. The linework is bold and outlined, with grey shading on the key and castle, and only the bow carries colour.

Forearm Key Mouse ears Bow Polka dot Castle Filigree Swirl

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The last guest wanted room nine, and Tilly Marsh could not find its key anywhere. Snow had sealed the Hollin Pass for three days, the kettle was down to its last inch, and Mr Pardoe in the back parlour kept asking, every quarter hour, whether the inn had ever lost a key before. It had not. Her grandmother had kept the ring on a nail by the stove for forty years, and the nail was bare.

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She searched the way her grandmother had taught her, from the top shelf down. She checked the flour bin, the bread oven, the drawer of string and dead batteries, and every coat pocket on the hooks. Behind the clock, under the bellows, she found a tea towel folded very small. Inside lay an iron key with a round head and two curled ears, its face worked into filigree, a red ribbon with white spots knotted at its neck, and a shaft that ended in a little grey castle cut into the bit. A card in her grandmother's looping hand said, Opens the door you have been pretending is not there. Tilly looked up at the attic stair, shut since before she was born, took the candle, and climbed.

Beyond the door was a narrow room under the eaves, and on a nail by the window hung a ring of keys, room nine's among them, its brass tag worn soft with handling. Snow pressed white against the glass. Below her, Mr Pardoe was still asking questions. Tilly took the ring down, weighed it in her palm, and found she was smiling. She would hang the iron key back on its nail where it belonged, and she would not tell him about the stair.