Two matching black linework tattoos of a dog portrait in ornate oval frames with flowers on the lower legs, with a bulldog puppy resting on the knees.

Matching dog portrait tattoos in oval frames

Traditional · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

Two matching tattoos sit side by side on the lower legs, each showing a dog portrait inside an ornate oval frame decorated with a cluster of flowers at the top. The design is drawn in clean black outlines with little or no shading, and the frame has a scrolled, decorative border. A real bulldog puppy rests on the knees in front of a white plastic chair, and the photo is taken outdoors on gravel.

Traditional Calf Dog Oval frame Flower Floral Frame

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The tattooist came along the Grand Union in October aboard a green-and-cream narrowboat called Patience, with a tin of black ink, a roll of needles and a bulldog of her own who snored like a kettle. She moored below our lock at Hatton and hung a board on the gate that read Pictures While You Wait, Cash Only, Nothing Frightening.

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Mam sat first. Ada worked with her sleeves rolled and her tongue between her teeth, sketching a little oval on the back of a cigarette packet before she touched the skin. She drew a frame with a crown of flowers at the top and a scroll at the base, then a dog inside it, looking up as though it had just heard its name. Mam wanted our old dog Pilot, who had died in the spring, and she only cried once the needle had stopped.

I was sixteen and too proud to ask. On the last evening I sat on the lock beam with my shins bare and said I wanted Biscuit, our bulldog, who was asleep on the coal sacks in the cabin. Ada looked at him for a long time. "Frames are for things that stay put," she said. "Ink goes where you can carry it, so you'd better be sure."

I was sure. Biscuit's jowls came out a little crooked, which Ada said was honest, and I walked the towpath for a week with a sting behind each knee. He still lies across my feet when I sleep aboard, snoring like a kettle, and every time he does I think of Ada's frame and how carefully she kept the flowers from spilling over its edge.