Watercolour-style penguin tattoo with a teal wash and black splatter dots on a forearm.

Penguin on a forearm

Forearm · Colour · Photo

A stylised penguin stands upright at the centre of the forearm, with a black head and back, a white belly shaded in pale yellow and grey, and yellow crest feathers above the eyes. A loose teal wash sits behind the bird, with scattered black dots around the figure and a faint ground line beneath its feet. The linework is fine and the shading is soft and watery, with colour ink dominating the composition.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

The rockhopper is back on the shingle below the kelp, the one with the yellow eyebrows that look like someone has combed them out with a wire brush. He stands on the same flat stone every morning as if he has been sent down to check the tide and report back. Your grandad used to say they were the vainest birds on the islands, and I'm starting to think he was right.

Mrs Pettigrew from the store says the council man wants him moved for the new road, but nobody has the nerve to lift him. I took the bucket down to the wash-house on Tuesday and he was standing in the doorway, dripping from the last squall, looking at me the way the bank manager used to look at your grandad's cheques. I put the bucket down and waited. He waited too. In the end I gave him the sprat we'd been saving for the cat, and he took it with great dignity, one flipper held out like a man reading a menu.

Last night the wind dropped and I saw him from the kitchen window, a small black shape against the grey water, walking straight up the path to the gate. He stopped by the washing line where your grandad's old blue jumper hangs, the one with the moth holes, and he looked at it for a long while.

This morning there were three prints in the wet sand by the gate, and the last one had caught the first light and gone pale gold. I've left the jumper where it is. Come over when the shearwaters start, and bring your own bucket.

Love, Nan

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