Two women seen from behind, each with a matching black ink elephant tattoo with ornate patterned detail on the upper back near the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Matching elephant tattoos on two backs

Back · Black and grey · Photo

Two women sit side by side with their backs to the camera, each showing a matching elephant tattoo on the upper back near the shoulder blade. The elephants face right with raised trunks and are filled with dense ornamental patterns in black ink, with lighter areas left as skin. The image is mostly neutral and grey, with a pink top on the left and a grey-green top on the right against a pale background.

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 Nell, the officer at the Calais desk turned my passport over three times, then asked what I had written under distinguishing marks. I'd put 'elephant, ornamental, trunk raised', which was what the form wanted and nothing like what Gran would have said. He read 'ornamental' back to me as if it were a dish he didn't trust. Then he stamped me through, and I ran the length of the terminal with my coat over one arm like a girl late for her own wedding.

Keep reading

The shop above the launderette on Belgrave Road smelled of bleach and clove oil. Ravi, who inked us, sat us back to back on the high stool so neither of us could watch the other flinch. He worked from a sketch Gran had pinned to the mirror, the trunks lifted as if the elephants were about to trumpet at a passing bus. Every dot of the filling took the best part of an hour, and every hour you complained about the buzzing while I pretended I felt nothing at all.

Ravi said the pale patches left between the ornament were the bits where the light gets in, and that a good elephant always keeps a little of the skin showing. I've been thinking about that on the coach down from the port, watching the fields go past with my own elephant tucked under my collar. When I get to Lyon I'll unpack the grey scarf you knitted and find the hole you left in it, which I'm choosing to call a window.

Keep your trunk up, Nell. Write back soon, and tell Gran the elephants are behaving themselves. Your sister, Jo.

More like this

Two people with matching multicoloured watercolour-style elephant and calf tattoos on their upper backs near the shoulder blades.
Matching watercolour elephants on two backs
Two people seen from behind, each with a matching small black outline cartoon character tattoo with a halo-like circle on the shoulder.
Matching cartoon tattoos on two shoulders
Black and grey photo of two women seen from behind, each with a matching ornate elephant tattoo, one on the thigh and one on the lower back.
Matching elephant tattoos on two women
Two forearms held together, each with a black and grey traditional-style anchor wrapped in rope on the inner forearm.
Matching anchor tattoos on forearms
Two matching fine line outline tattoos of a giraffe and an elephant with a small heart, one on each ankle.
Matching giraffe and elephant ankle tattoos
Two matching compass and dreamcatcher feather tattoos on the hips, drawn in black linework with teal and purple accents on the feathers.
Matching compass and feather tattoos on hips
Two matching black ink elephant tattoos with floral and paisley patterns sit on the inner forearms of two people, one on each wrist.
Matching patterned elephant tattoos on two forearms
Two black outline geometric bird tattoos sit near the shoulder blades of two people, one larger on the left and one smaller on the right.
Geometric bird tattoos on two shoulders
Two people seen from behind, each with a black swirling tree tattoo on the upper back, with one also showing a pink bow tattoo beside it.
Matching swirl trees and bow on two backs
Black fine line tattoo of two elephants facing each other with their trunks meeting in a heart shape, on the inner forearm.
Two elephants with trunks forming a heart
Two small black anchor tattoos with heart-shaped tops sit on the ribs of two people side by side, and the right-hand anchor has a pink bow.
Small anchor tattoos on the ribs
Two small black outline crown tattoos on the upper arms of two people, shown in a fine line style.
Small crown tattoos on two arms

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