Traditional-style flash design of a grey crocodile head with a dagger, a pink rose and a KILLER banner, shown on a textured grey background.

Killer Croc crocodile, dagger and rose design

Traditional · Mixed · Flash

A crocodile head with an open jaw and bared teeth bites around a dagger, with a banner reading KILLER below and a pink rose beneath it. The scales are shaded in grey with green and pink highlights, using bold black outlines. The design is centred on a pale, mottled grey background with a film title at the top and a character name and copyright line at the bottom.

Traditional Reptile Dagger Rose Banner

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The crocodile in the back of Harrigan's Travelling Fair has not eaten since Tuesday, and Mr Harrigan wants her fed before the evening crowd, so he hands you a bucket of mackerel and a tea towel to wrap around your wrist. 'Left jaw sticks,' he says. 'Keep your hand where she can see it.' You have been with the fair nine days. You have learnt that the stall lights hum, that the Ferris wheel bolts need tightening every second morning, and that nobody asks what happened to the last boy who fed her.

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Her name is Ada, painted in white on the tank lid, though the programme calls her the Killer. The dagger hangs on a hook beside the tank, a long bright blade with a carved guard that Harrigan uses to coax her out of the water for photographs. Ruth, who runs the candyfloss, says the dagger was her father's, and that the pink rose tucked into its grip each morning is a debt being paid. You do not believe her until the night you find the rose on the tank rim, still wet, and the dagger hook swinging empty.

You feed Ada anyway, because the fish is cut and the queue is already at the gate. She takes the first mackerel gently, almost politely, and while she works you notice the tent flap open a crack, a lantern held low on the other side. It is Ruth, lifting one palm to show you a thorn-pricked finger and a look that says she has been meaning to leave this fair for years.

You take the dagger from the hook, slice the rope on the tank cover, and leave the lid open. Ada slides out through the tent flap and into the mud, and by the time Harrigan finds the empty tank, the only thing left is the bucket, rattling with fish heads, and a single rose on the wet grass, pointing towards the road.