Traditional style tattoo of a shark with ornate red, yellow and teal patterns across its body, on the upper arm.

Ornate shark tattoo on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A large shark swims diagonally up the skin, with its mouth open to show rows of teeth and a pale eye above. The body is filled with symmetrical mandala-like motifs in red, yellow, orange and teal, and the fins are decorated with dotted and scalloped designs. Bold black outlines and flat, saturated colour give the piece a classic American traditional look against the soft skin tones.

Traditional Upper arm Shark Ornamental pattern Mandala Teeth Fin Sea creature Dot

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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

You have been on the scaffold since March, painting the Marina Palais ceiling with gulls, a lighthouse and a sun the size of a cartwheel. Mrs Abernethy, who owns the place and has never once looked up at it, wants the whole sea up there by the summer dance season. She sends up tea in a tin mug and instructions in pencil on the backs of invoices.

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The shark comes on a Thursday, while the band is tuning below. You did not plan it. The brush starts with the open jaw, rows of teeth like bunting strung on a line, and then the body fills itself with what your nan stitched onto tablecloths: rosettes, scallops, red and ochre dots, every motif mirrored so exactly the eye cannot find the seam. You work down the tail as the first couples come in, and the saxophone downstairs stops mid-phrase. Someone calls up, "Who's painting that?"

You expect a complaint. Instead Mrs Abernethy climbs the ladder in her good court shoes, one hand on the rail, and stands with her head tipped back for a long time. The band waits. Then she says, "He's looking at the chandelier like he owns it," and goes back down to fetch the dancers.

That night the floor is empty except for her, and the band plays a slow foxtrot for one. You lie on the scaffold with the shark's painted eye above you and watch her turn in small circles beneath the teeth, counting in fours, never once looking down.