Black and grey line drawing of a suited figure dissolving into a spiralling splash, with stippled shading and no visible placement on skin.

Melting suited figure in a splash spiral

Black and grey · Flash

The drawing shows a figure in a suit and tie, with only a pair of fingers visible at the top, sinking into a spiral of thick, wavy bands that resemble liquid or melting fabric. Clean outlines are combined with stippled dot shading on the folds and the base, and small droplets float around the top edge. The composition is centred and vertical, set on a plain off-white background.

Suit Tie Finger Splash Spiral Droplet

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

By the third hour at the Coquelles lane, nobody at the desk wanted to be the one to open the grey suit. It came through the X-ray folded over the conveyor, a navy tie still knotted at its collar, and when Dev lifted the lapel it was warm and soft as a towel left out in the sun. Nobody had claimed it. The lorry driver swore he had seen no one climb out of the cab.

Keep reading

I took the tie in my hand and it slid, slow as treacle, off my fingers and onto the steel. Dev said it was a prank, someone from the ministry testing us. I said nobody in the ministry could afford a suit that expensive to lose. We stood and watched the jacket spread across the tray, bending the way ink does on wet paper, and a small glossy bead rolled off the cuff and hung above the belt for a moment before it dropped.

At five past six the supervisor came down with a clipboard and a plastic bag. He looked at the puddle of wool, said we should log it as lost property, and went back upstairs without touching it. I signed the form. Under reason for retention I wrote melting, crossed it out, and wrote unclaimed.

I took the bag home that night, though I shouldn't have. The flat now smells faintly of wet pavement and cloves. The tie hangs on the hook by the door, stiff and lighter than it was, and each morning it has moved a little further towards the floor, as if it has decided to leave on its own terms.