Colour traditional tattoo of a pin-up mermaid with a flower in her hair and a green scaled tail, on the inner forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Pin-up mermaid on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A traditional-style mermaid pin-up with flowing auburn hair, a red flower above one ear and a shell top, shown in a raised-arm pose. Bold black outlines define the figure, with green scales and a curled tail shaded in lighter and darker tones. Warm skin tones, pink cheeks and red accents sit against the green and yellow tail, and the design fills the length of the forearm against a dark leather backdrop.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

By the time the Dorothy Ann reached Torksey, the paint on her cabin side had faded to the colour of stewed tea, and only the mermaid still showed any ambition. Dad called her Dolly. She had a red flower tucked above one ear, a pair of shells that made the lock-keepers look twice, and a green tail curling round the porthole as if she was waiting for someone to ask her to dance.

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That spring the tail had gone chalky and grey, and Dad's hands had started to shake too much for a fine brush. He sent me up to the chandler's with two shillings and a list. I came back with a tin of enamel the colour of pond weed and a mouthful of complaints about the price. He didn't say thank you. He just unscrewed the lid, dipped the brush and passed it to me. "Scales go one way," he said. "Down the tail, same as the river runs."

I worked until the light went orange over the willows, my knuckles smeared green, while he sat on the coal box and smoked and said nothing at all. When I finally stopped, I thought I'd ruined her, because the new scales looked too bright beside the old flower. Dad leaned over, tipped his head, and laughed for the first time that week. "Now she looks like she's been out for a swim," he said, and in the lamp-light the tail caught the water and seemed to move.

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