Colour realism tattoo of a mermaid with teal hair, pearls, an orange starfish and seashells across an upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Mermaid portrait with starfish on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A woman's face is rendered as a mermaid, framed by flowing teal and blue hair threaded with pearls. An orange starfish and pale seashells sit around her head, with soft blue and green water shading behind them. Smooth blended shading and vivid colour fill the portrait, which covers most of the upper arm.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Morwenna,

Keep reading

The pumps went quiet on Tuesday and the water came up through the western adit like it had been waiting years to be asked. Captain Penhallow sent us down with lamps, and we stood on the ladder in the dark, up to our knees in cold, listening to the sea somewhere over our heads. I will not pretend I was not frightened. Tom Rowe swore he heard singing. I told him it was only air moving through the workings, the way it does.

Then the lamp caught something pale on the water. A woman's face, I swear it, turned up toward us with her hair floating out around her like weed, threaded through with little beads that caught the light like the pearls you wore to chapel. Her eyes were open. There was a starfish on the rock beside her, orange as a forge fire, and a shell pressed against the wall like an ear turned to listen. Tom crossed himself. I did not. I only stood there thinking of you, and how you once told me the sea keeps whatever it is given.

We came up that night and the captain shut the level. Nobody has gone back down. I have not told the company what I saw, because they would only send men with better lamps and worse manners. I keep thinking of her face, how calm it was, the blue of it like the water off the Levant stacks on a summer morning.

Keep the kettle warm. I will be home by the lamplighting, and I will tell you the rest then.

Your loving husband, Jory

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