Black and grey koi fish drawing in a Japanese style with orange fins and a red gill patch, beside the heading The Meaning Behind Koi Fish Tattoos.

Koi fish tattoo design with heading text

Japanese · Mixed · Flash

A koi fish swims upward in a traditional Japanese tattoo style, with a black body, white-outlined scales, a yellow eye and a red patch behind the gill. Its fins and tail are shaded in orange and gold with fine hatched linework. The fish sits on the left of a plain white background, with a large black serif heading to its right.

Find an artist for this

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

Dear Kev, you'll not believe what came up the drain after Tuesday's storm. Mr Okafor from 9B swears it was a koi, black as a bin bag with gold along the fins, and he's been feeding it bread crusts in the bin-store tank ever since. The council reckon it's a carp off somebody's balcony. I say it's too handsome for a carp.

Keep reading

I went down Thursday with my torch. It was sat in the grey water with its nose against the grate, as if it was trying to climb out the way it came. Its tail was frilled orange, and every scale had a white edge, outlined like someone had gone round with a fine pen. Yellow eye, watching me, proper cheeky. Nan used to say they swim up waterfalls to turn into dragons. I told her that was daft, but I'd not have bet against it, not with that face.

Then the lads from the estate office came to drain the tank for cleaning. Mr Okafor stood at the gate with his arms folded and said nothing, and I thought, well, that's that. But when the hose went on, the fish didn't panic. It went up the ladder rung by rung, finning hard against the spray, until it reached the lip of the wall and flicked itself over into the storm drain. Gone. Mr Okafor just nodded, like he'd known all along.

Ring me Sunday and I'll tell you the rest. Your dad would have laughed himself silly. Love, Mum.

More like this

Black and gold koi fish drawn in a Japanese style with white scale outlines and red gills, beside the headline The Meaning Behind Koi Fish Tattoos, with no body part shown.
Black and gold koi fish tattoo design
Drawn koi fish tattoo design in a Japanese style, with black scales, orange-gold fins and a red gill, beside the headline The Meaning Behind Koi Fish Tattoos.
Koi fish tattoo design with headline
Full-colour Japanese style koi fish design drawn in red and orange with white wave lines and a black and grey swirl behind it, shown as a flash drawing with no body placement.
Koi fish with swirling waves design
Black and grey Japanese style koi fish tattoo with wave linework on a person's upper back and shoulder blade.
Koi fish and waves on upper back
Colour Japanese style tattoo of a koi fish leaping through black and grey waves with pink cherry blossoms, covering the upper arm and shoulder.
Koi and cherry blossoms on upper arm
Greyscale pencil drawing of two koi fish swimming through stylised waves, a Japanese style tattoo design on paper.
Two koi fish among waves design
Colour Japanese style tattoo of an orange koi fish with a pink lotus, pink cherry blossoms and blue waves across the upper back.
Orange koi with lotus and cherry blossom on a back
Japanese style koi tattoo in a yin yang circle, with one fish in orange and one in black and grey, on smooth skin.
Orange and black koi in a yin yang circle
Full back tattoo of a red koi fish swimming among pink cherry blossoms and water swirls in Japanese style, across the upper and middle back.
Koi fish and cherry blossom on a back
Black ink line drawing of a koi fish swimming upward, with detailed scale pattern and fins, in Japanese tattoo flash style, with no body placement shown.
Koi fish line drawing design
Traditional style colour tattoo of a green, yellow and red bird with a swirling tail on the side of a torso.
Colourful bird with swirling tail on side
Colour Japanese-style tattoo of a red koi fish with a pink lotus flower and turquoise waves on the upper back.
Koi fish and lotus on the upper back

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.