Black ink tattoo of a mouse head outline filled with filigree swirls and small hearts, placed on a person's upper back.

Mouse head outline with swirls and hearts on back

Back · Black and grey · Photo

A bold black outline in the shape of a mouse head frames the design, with the ears and head filled by ornate filigree swirls and two hearts, one at the top and one at the lower centre. The linework is solid black with some lighter grey areas and the skin tone showing through the unfilled spaces. The tattoo sits centred on the skin, with the image cropped tightly around it.

Back Mouse ears Heart Swirl Filigree Outline

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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

Thursday, the Ashcombe Arms, snow still level with the sills. Three days now since the Keighley coach turned back at the bridge, and we have eleven guests, a barrel of the dark ale and no word from the road. Mrs Pell says the mouse in the back store is a bad omen, but he has been the most industrious lodger we have had all winter.

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I found the evidence this morning in the box where I keep the spare tacks. Someone had unpicked the fine silver wire from the lace collar Mrs Garside left behind in October, the one she said was her mother's and I was to post on. The wire had been coiled into tight little spirals, a curl for every knuckle of my little finger, and a pair of hearts no bigger than a barley grain. The mouse had even tucked the ends under so nothing would snag. I left a crust by the box and found it gone by dusk, and the next morning the swirls had grown a third ear's width.

Mr Garside, who carries a loupe in his waistcoat and talks of nothing but clocks, saw the work on Saturday and asked to buy it. I told him the mouse was not for sale. He laughed and said everything in this house was for sale if the snow stayed long enough. This evening the wind dropped and the sky went the colour of pewter. Tomorrow the carter will get through, and I will have to hand back Mrs Garside's collar, wire and all. I have unwound nothing. I have set the box on the windowsill, with the hearts facing out, so the mouse can see the road.