Colour tattoo on a thigh of an artist's palette, two paintbrushes, a yellow rose, leaves, a beaded chain and an open pocket watch, shown in two side-by-side photos.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Palette, brushes, rose and pocket watch on a thigh

Traditional · Thigh · Colour · Photo

The design shows a wooden artist's palette with blue dots and a thumb hole, two paintbrushes crossed behind it, a large yellow rose with dark green leaves, and an open pocket watch with a beaded chain at the bottom. Bold black outlines define the shapes, with smooth shading on the palette, leaves and watch casing. The two panels show the same tattoo on a thigh, filling most of the frame against a dark garment.

Traditional Neo-trad Thigh Paintbrush Rose Leaves Pocket watch Bead Chain

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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

The pawnbroker on Lamb Lane counted out eleven shillings for my father's watch and told me it had stopped at twenty past four, which was no use to anyone except a man who wanted an excuse to be late.

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I spent the money at Pell's on the high street: two sable brushes, a cracked walnut palette and a tin of yellow ochre that smelled of linseed and pennies. Then I walked to the Crown and asked Mr Hobday for work. He laughed at a girl with paint already under her nails, until I lettered his whole board in a single morning and he paid me in gin and a grudging nod.

The watch went into the pawnbroker's window with a card tied to its chain. Every Thursday I walked past and watched a thin man in a brown coat polish the glass around it. In March the card was gone and the window held a box of buttons instead, and I understood someone had bought the watch for its brass case and not its time.

That autumn I painted a rose on the back of Hobday's board, yellow as ochre, with leaves that took me three nights to get right. When it dried I held the palette up to the lamp and saw, in the wet mix pooled at its edge, a small silver gleam I had never managed to forget. I wiped the brush clean and started again.