Black and grey realism half sleeve on an upper arm showing aces, a queen of diamonds, a padlock and crowned keys, with small red accents on the diamond and heart.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Playing cards, padlock and keys on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A half sleeve on the upper arm shows a padlock at the top, with playing cards fanned out beneath it including aces of clubs and spades and a queen of diamonds. Crowned keys, thorny vines and leaves run across the lower part of the arm, and smooth shading gives the metal and cards a rounded, three-dimensional look. The piece is mostly grey and black, with red used only on the diamond and a heart.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Lenny,

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The lift has been broken since Tuesday, so I've been climbing the nine floors with the shopping like a woman in a bad film. Mrs Okafor on six says the council will look at it in March. I told her March is when they'll send someone round with a clipboard and a face like a wet Sunday, and she laughed, which is more than the council ever managed.

Your Ray came round yesterday with the box of cards you left under his settee. He wanted to know if you still owed him for the Thursday game, and I said you owed everybody on this estate for something, so get in the queue. He's stopped going to the back room at the Crown. Says the aces always fall for whoever is holding the most keys, and he's sick of watching good men lose their flats to a pair of kings and a bad temper.

I've still got your spare on the hook by the door, the brass one with the little crown stamped on the bow. The padlock off the bike shed never got opened properly after you went, so I've been keeping it under the sink with the bleach and the good scissors. Don't ask me why. Some things you hang on to in case the other person comes back for them.

Come Sunday. I'll do the roast and you can tell me the queen of diamonds story again, the one where you swear she winked at you across the table. I won't believe a word, but I'll let you think I might.

Love, Mum

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