Colour traditional tattoo of a red lipstick and a scalloped heart with teal flowers and a banner reading uh as if, on a forearm.

Lipstick and heart on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A bold lipstick tube and a scalloped heart with two teal and yellow flowers sit within a pink and lilac frame, with a banner across the heart carrying the words uh as if. The design uses thick black outlines, flat fills and soft shading on the red lipstick and pink background. Bright colours dominate the composition, which is shown centred on the forearm against a white backdrop.

Traditional Forearm Lipstick Heart Flower Banner Lettering Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dora had the lipstick out before the vicar had finished blessing the rhubarb. "Hold still," she said, twisting the red stick up until it stood proud of its gold case like a little flag. "You're going to look like a tart at the bake sale."

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We were sitting on the bench at the bottom of Gran's garden, where the sweet peas had gone leggy over the netting. Gran had left us the lot: the greenhouse, a tin of seed packets, and a row of teal-painted pots she swore were lucky. Dora had been talking about Tom Gilchrist since breakfast, how he'd said her hair looked like a nice bit of hay, and how she was going to marry him in the spring or die trying.

"Uh, as if," I said, because somebody had to, and because Gran used to say it whenever the telly got soppy.

Dora laughed so hard she smudged red onto her chin. She didn't wipe it off. She just looked at me with the particular fondness that only comes from sharing a childhood, then pressed the lipstick into my palm. "Your turn, then. Go on."

I kept it in my coat pocket for years after. Some Sundays I still take it out at the bottom of the garden and look at the sweet peas, which grew up wild and never once asked permission.