Colour Japanese style tattoo of a cherry blossom branch and two koi fish across the upper arm and shoulder.

Koi and cherry blossom sleeve

Japanese · Shoulder · Mixed · Photo

A branch of pink cherry blossom runs from the shoulder down the upper arm, with dark stems and small petals falling below. Two koi fish, one orange and one dark grey, swim down the arm towards the elbow, with soft grey shading on the fins and smooth colour fills on the bodies. The tattoo fills the left side of the frame against a plain, slightly out-of-focus background.

Japanese Botanical Shoulder Upper arm Cherry blossom Koi Fish Branch Petal Sleeve

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The pond behind the chandlery on Gull Steps had been dry since the pump seized, so when Mrs Okonedo sent her grandson down with a bucket of rainwater, nobody expected the two carp to last the week. They lasted. The orange one the children called Marmalade, and the grey one, sleek as wet slate, had no name at all, which he seemed to prefer.

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The cherry tree above the steps came into flower early that year, and every morning the petals blew down the lane and settled on the water. I skimmed them off with the handle of a shrimp net before the fish could mouth them. Dad said I was wasting my time. A fish that lives by a harbour, he said, learns to take what the tide brings and leave the rest alone.

The equinox gale took the south wall in the night. By dawn the pond had emptied through the gap, and the sea below the quay was full of gold and grey shapes turning in the chop. I went down the steps in my nightdress, and there they were, the two of them, nosing against the weed at the foot of the wall as though they had always meant to come this way. The grey one turned first. The orange one followed him out past the breakwater.

Next spring the blossom came early again. I stood at the top of the steps with my net and watched the water under the boats, where two shadows moved slowly through the green. Petals drifted down onto the swell and went out with the tide, one after another, towards the open sea.