Traditional style flash design of three Poké Balls with fire, water and leaf elements and ribbon banners reading Life's Hardest Choice, on a black background.

Pokeball trio with fire, water and leaf

Traditional · Colour · Flash

Three Poké Balls are wrapped in grey ribbon banners that carry the words LIFE'S, HARDEST and CHOICE, with flames above, a blue water splash to the right and green leaves to the left. The outlines are bold and black, and the red, white and grey areas are built up with fine stippled shading. The design is arranged in a compact cluster on a plain black background, with bright orange, red, blue and green accents against the grey.

Traditional Dotwork Fire Flame Leaf Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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Mam says I have to write properly now you're in Hartlepool and not just send a postcard of the pier. So here is the news. Dad came up from the Ellerby shaft on Tuesday with his face black and a paper twist of sherbet he'd won off the deputy at cards. He put it on the table and said the lamp had gone out twice that week and he was fed up of it. Nobody said much at tea after that.

The three of us sat round the table looking at Granda's tin. Inside are the three red and white balls he carved and painted, one with the glow of the blacksmith's forge on its face, one blue from the pump house, one green from the allotment. You remember he said each one was a door. Mam wants me to take the leaf one to the agricultural show. Dad reckons the fire one, so I'll be useful to the ponies. I keep taking the water one out and putting it back.

The ribbon round the tin says LIFE'S HARDEST CHOICE, which Granda lettered himself. I thought it was one of his jokes until I noticed the last word had been pressed so hard the paper tore. I asked Dad what he picked when he was my age. He said he picked the pit because the pit was there, and that was the end of it, though he went out to the yard after and stood a long time in the rain.

So I'm taking the water one to the coast, if you'll have me. Tell the landlady I'll sleep on the floor and pay for the bread. Keep the kettle on.

Your brother, Owen