Black and grey Japanese style tattoo of a mermaid with cherry blossoms and swirling waves on the upper arm.

Mermaid with blossoms and waves on upper arm

Japanese · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A mermaid with long flowing hair and a blossom in her hair sits within a field of stylised waves and cherry blossom flowers. The linework is fine and dark, with soft grey shading on the water, the scaled tail and the figure's body. The design fills the upper arm, with the tail curling down towards the elbow, and it is shown in black and grey only.

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

Sit closer, the tent flap lets the draught in. You want the girl from the tank? Everybody wants the girl from the tank. Forty summers I've stood at the pier end with this tin of pennies, and every lad who asks whether she was real gets the same answer: real enough to frighten the showman.

Keep reading

Her name was Nell Harker, though the bills said Princess Aquila. Crane, the showman, bought a bolt of salvaged silk, painted it with waves and cherry blossom, and nailed it behind her glass so the crowd thought the sea went on forever. Each night she sat on the painted rock with a paper blossom behind one ear and never once looked up at the coppers. She counted the waves instead, the ones that came through the drain under the boards, because the tide fed her tank twice a day.

The turn came in October. Crane started charging extra for a closer look, and the water in the tank went cold. On the last night of the season Nell pulled the plug herself. The silk peeled from the wall, the blossoms drifted across the sawdust, and by the time Crane found the lamp she was gone through the pier gap with the ebb, a pale tail going out past the lighthouse.

Crane swore she'd drowned. I say she went back to the cherry trees on that silk, which is a daft thing for an old man to believe, yet the blossoms still wash up on the shingle every spring, and I've picked more than my share. Take one for your ear. Mind the third step down, it's gone soft with salt, and give me your penny for the tea.

More like this

Colour traditional tattoo of a mermaid holding a rope, with waves, clouds, birds and a flower, on an upper arm.
Traditional mermaid with rope on upper arm
Colour neo-traditional tattoo of a red-haired mermaid with a teal tail on the left side of a person's ribs.
Red-haired mermaid on a side ribcage
Colour traditional tattoo of a red-haired mermaid in a shell top, with a skull under a spider web above her head and waves below, on an arm.
Mermaid with skull on an arm
Colour traditional tattoo of a pin-up mermaid with a flower in her hair and a green scaled tail, on the inner forearm.
Pin-up mermaid on a forearm
Black and grey neo-trad tattoo of a pin-up woman with feathers and a rose in her hair, shown on the outer thigh.
Pin-up woman with feathers on a thigh
Black and grey fine line mermaid tattoo with flowing hair, bubbles and skulls in her tail, on the outer thigh.
Mermaid with skulls on a thigh
Traditional colour tattoo of a pin-up mermaid with dark hair, a polka-dot flower and a red shell top, with a red-to-green tail, on the thigh.
Pin-up mermaid with shell top
Colour tattoo on a forearm showing blue, orange and purple Virgo script above a stylised woman with flowing hair and flower motifs.
Virgo script and flowing figure on a forearm
Black and grey Capricorn sea goat tattoo with curled horns and a scaled fish tail, covering most of the upper back.
Capricorn sea goat across a back
Fine line jellyfish tattoo with a soft blue wash across the ribs and back, with a short script word along the lower ribs.
Jellyfish tattoo across ribs and back
Colour tattoo across the upper back of a fine-line Art Nouveau style woman with autumn vine leaves, grapes and green swirling tendrils.
Art Nouveau woman with grape vines on back
Traditional colour tattoo of a brown-haired mermaid with a teal tail and pink starfish on the upper arm, against a blue shirt with shell print.
Mermaid with starfish on upper arm

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