Full-colour tattoo of the video game character Mario holding a plunger and a wrench, with question blocks, a gold coin and a green pipe, on a lower leg shown in three views.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Mario with plunger and wrench on a lower leg

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The tattoo depicts the video game character Mario in his red cap and blue overalls, holding a plunger in one hand and a pipe wrench in the other. Question blocks, a gold coin and a green warp pipe sit around him on the left and behind. Smooth shading and bold dark outlines give the figures volume, and the three panels show the piece from front, side and an angled view.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Right, so the call said the downstairs toilet was making noises like a whale with a grudge, and I said to myself, Mario, that is a plunger job, not a wrench job, and I was wrong on both counts. I got to the house on Harcourt Street with my tool bag and my red cap on, and the landlady, Mrs Pemberton, met me at the door in a dressing gown covered in tiny teapots.

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The trouble was under the stairs, where some clever soul had fitted the drain with a green bend that looked like a pipe that wanted to be a tunnel. I put the plunger to it, pushed, and the whole cupboard gave a sigh. Then I noticed a row of little boxes nailed to the joist, each one painted with a question mark. Mrs Pemberton said her late husband had put them up for luck. I gave the middle one a tap with my knuckle, and a gold coin dropped out and rolled under my boot.

I should say I pocketed it. A plumber needs a bit of luck, and so does a wrench. With the wrench I loosened the joint, and a rush of brown water went down the green pipe as though it had somewhere important to be, and the house stopped groaning.

Mrs Pemberton paid me in a cup of tea and three custard creams. When I left she called after me that the coin was mine to keep, so long as I brought the next one back for the boxes. I've been thinking about that ever since, every time I'm stuck under a sink at midnight.