Two forearms with matching pastel scissor tattoos tied with bows, one forearm also bearing the script words Beauty is madness.

Matching scissors and bow forearm tattoos

Lettering · Forearm · Colour · Photo

Two forearms show matching tattoos of open scissors, each with a bow wrapped around the blades, drawn in grey outlines with soft pink and blue fills. The words Beauty is madness are written in black script along the lower forearm, beneath the left scissors. The colour is applied with smooth shading, and the two arms cross diagonally across the frame.

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

Nell found the shears in the drawer under the pattern books, wrapped in a pink ribbon gone the colour of weak tea. Her mother had kept them there since the shop on Harbour Street closed, and nobody had thought to ask whose they were.

Keep reading

"Aunt Ivy's," said Gran from the doorway, without coming in. "She used to say beauty is madness, and then she'd cut a bias strip so true you could hear it sing." She pressed her lips together. "Her twin had the other pair. Rose. They didn't speak for eleven years over a wedding veil."

Nell turned the shears over. The bows had been tied tight enough to leave a crease in the satin, and beneath the grease and fluff the blades still opened with the same small, sure click. She thought of the jumble sale at St Mark's, the tin of buttons and the cracked biscuit tin someone had carried in and sold for fifty pence. Inside it, under a folded christening gown, lay a second pair of shears with a blue bow faded almost to grey.

She took both pairs to the kitchen table on Sunday and laid them side by side, blades pointing the same way. Gran watched from her chair without a word. Then she reached out, slowly, and tugged the two ribbons until they touched.

Nell cut a single length of blue cotton with them both. It came away clean and straight, and neither of them had to give way.

More like this

Two matching black tattoos on feet, each with the word Always in flowing script and a solid stag silhouette with antlers.
Matching Always and stag tattoos on feet
Two matching black script tattoos reading Always sit on the ankles of two people, photographed side by side over a plastic-covered surface.
Matching Always ankle tattoos
Two matching heart tattoos with swirling scrollwork and the word Sisters in script on the forearms, with a small pink bow tattoo visible below.
Matching sisters heart tattoos on forearms
Two matching ankle tattoos of a black infinity symbol with a shaded red heart and the word Sisters in black script, fine line style.
Matching infinity heart tattoos reading Sisters
Two matching black swirl symbol tattoos, one on each inner wrist, drawn in simple single-weight linework.
Two swirl symbols on the wrists
Two matching black and grey key tattoos with the word Sisters in script, shown on the inner forearms of two people.
Matching sisters key tattoos on forearms
Black infinity symbol tattoo with scrolling swirls and small blue and red flowers with green leaves, on the inner forearm.
Infinity symbol with flowers on a forearm
Two matching fine line elephant tattoos on forearms, one with the script Like Daughter and the other Like Mother, with small pink, blue and green accents.
Matching elephant pair with Like Mother and Like Daughter
Two matching black om symbol tattoos, one on the top of each bare foot, shown against a pale fabric background.
Matching om symbols on two feet
Two matching neo-traditional tattoos on wrists: a heart-shaped padlock with the word Always and a key with the word Forever, in grey shading with dotwork accents.
Padlock and key pair on two wrists
Two matching black fine line infinity and heart tattoos with the word sisters in script, one on each ankle.
Matching sisters infinity heart ankle tattoos
Two matching fine line black script tattoos reading Sisters within an infinity symbol, one on the back of the neck and one on the inner wrist.
Matching sisters infinity tattoos

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