Colour and greyscale tattoo on a forearm showing a shaded paw print, a red heart, the word SOULMATE in handwritten lettering and a purple heart below.

Paw print, heart and SOULMATE on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A shaded grey paw print with soft pad detail fills the centre of the forearm, with the word SOULMATE in uneven handwritten capitals beneath it and a small purple heart further down. A red heart sits above the paw, and loose splashes of red, teal, blue and purple ink surround the design. The shading on the paw is greyscale and detailed, while the lettering and watercolour-like accents use brighter colour.

Realism Lettering Forearm Paw print Heart Splashes

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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 learned the Saturday shape of things before you learned your own name. Every week the side door of the Coronet in Hollin Bridge breathed out lager and Brylcreem and a saxophone slid through the gap like warm treacle. Dolores tied you to the iron railing with a crust she'd promised to bring back, and every week she came out at the second waltz to check the knot and found you exactly where she'd left you, nose to the crack of light.

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Tonight the rain had got into the gutters and the railing ran slick. The lead went slack in your mouth and you were across the cobbles before anyone shouted, through the door and onto the sprung maple floor, the boards skidding under your pads. Every couple on the floor turned to stare. Dolores was pressed against a tall fellow in a grey suit, a man she'd told you about in the kitchen as if he were weather, and she stopped mid-step with her hand at his collar.

You left prints all the way to her, dark and shining, five toes and a pad and the small hard heel of hope. The caretaker swore at them in the morning with a bucket and a sour face. Dolores told him to leave them alone. Ronnie, who had been a stranger until that minute, knelt in the wet marks and said, well, he's chosen his partner then, and nobody in the hall could argue with that.