Black ink line drawing of an ornate goldfish with flowing fins and swirled scale patterns, drawn on cream paper as a tattoo design.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornate goldfish line drawing

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A fine black ink drawing of a goldfish swimming to the right, with long, wavy, layered fins and a tail that trails off to the upper left. The body is filled with scale rows and curling spiral patterns, and small dots and splashes surround the fish. The design is drawn in unshaded line work on a plain cream background, with the fish filling most of the frame.

Fine line Goldfish Fish Fin Swirl Scale Bubble

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

Dear Mags,

Keep reading

The oven timer has gone off twice while I've been trying to start this, so forgive the smudge on the paper. It is twenty to five and the bakery is still dark except for the strip light over the proving drawers. Mr Okafor's goldfish, the orange one he calls Duchess, has been circling her bowl on the counter since three, wanting feeding, or company, or both. I gave her a pinch of flake and told her the rye wouldn't be out for an hour.

You'd laugh at how much I've come to depend on her. Every morning I open the shutter and she's already at the front, fins fanned out like a wedding train, turning slow circles through the bubbles the filter makes. The old man bought her the week his wife died, and I think the fish is the only thing in the shop he still talks to properly. I don't mind being talked to by a goldfish. It's better company than the radio.

Last Tuesday she was off her food and I sat up with her until the sky went grey over the car park. I counted the little rows of scales, then drew her on the back of a delivery note because my hands needed something to do besides shaping loaves. Her tail came out like smoke, and I keep thinking about the spiral on her cheek.

Come up at Easter and bring your sketchbook. We'll sit on the back step with a bag of seconds and you can draw her properly. Tell me the cats next door haven't got in again.

Love, Jen