Colour tattoo on a calf showing koi, a dragonfly, lily pads, white lilies and a striped lizard in a pond scene with soft shading.

Koi pond and dragonfly on a calf

Japanese · Calf · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows a pond scene with two koi fish, a dragonfly with patterned wings, several lily pads and white lily flowers with long green leaves. A striped lizard rests on rocks at the bottom edge, and the water behind the subjects is rendered with pale blue and pink washes. The linework is fine and the shading is smooth and gradual, with bright, saturated colour in the leaves, fish and lily pads.

Japanese Realism Calf Koi Fish Dragonfly Lily Water Lizard Rock Leaves Grass

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, The pond is clear enough at last to see the bottom, which is more than I can say for my temper. Mrs Hollis's two koi have been sulking under the lily pads since I drained the filter to get the blanket weed out. I told her they would forgive me once the water warmed. They have not.

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I spent Saturday on my knees at the edge with a net and a bucket, lifting out silt that smelled of old pennies. Under the big flat stone where Dad always said the newts lived, I found his tin of fish food, rusted shut, with a slip of paper inside gone soft as cloth. It said only "Feed them at six, not before, they watch the window." I laughed out loud, alone in the garden like a fool.

Mrs Hollis came out at dusk with her stick and a paper bag of sugared almonds, which she eats while she talks. She watched the white lilies open one by one, and a dragonfly with wings banded like a humbug landed on the lily pad nearest the wall. "That one's been here all summer," she said. "Your father called him the foreman."

I have put the tin on the windowsill now, lid off. The lizard from the rockery came out to sun itself on the warm sandstone, and at six exactly the koi rose to the surface as if someone had called them in. Come on Sunday at half past five and bring your own bucket. Love, Ruth.