Colour realism tattoo of the king of hearts playing card and a bearded king in a red robe and gold crown, sitting on the outer thigh.

King of hearts playing card on thigh

Realism · Thigh · Colour · Photo

A bearded king in a red robe and gold crown leans forward over a large king of hearts playing card, with a sword at his side and a second slumped king below him. The shading is smooth and painterly, with soft gradients on the fabric, skin and metal. Reds, golds and cream tones dominate, with a warm yellow background behind the card, and the design wraps around the outer thigh.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nobody on the fourteenth floor played cards for money after Dennis Pike moved in, because Dennis cheated the way other men breathed. He dealt from the bottom, palmed aces into his cuff and smiled through his grey beard like a grandad reading a bedtime story. We played anyway. Thursdays, in the laundry room, under a strip light that buzzed like a wasp in a jar.

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The king of hearts was his favourite. He kept it creased soft at one corner from years of thumbing, and he'd flip it onto the table with a little flourish. 'Look at him,' he'd say, 'the old fool, always leaning in to see what's coming.' Red robe, gold crown, that painted heart on his chest like a target. I thought he was describing himself.

Then Marcus Ayo, nineteen and with nothing to lose, called his bluff. Dennis reached under the bin bags for the sword he kept there, the one from his late brother's stage act, and the whole room held its breath. Then he laughed, turned the card face down and slid the pot across to the boy.

Dennis was gone by the Monday. On Tuesday morning I found the king of hearts on the mat outside 14B, face up, the crown bent sideways. Underneath it, in block capitals on the back of a gas bill, he'd written DON'T LEAN IN. I still don't know whether he meant the game or the stairs.

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