Traditional style tattoo of an open powder compact with red flowers on a teal mirror, placed on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Powder compact with red flowers on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo shows an open powder compact with a gold rim decorated with white dots, a grey shaded powder puff, and a round mirror holding three red flowers with dark green leaves on a teal background. Bold black outlines and flat, solid colour fills give it a classic traditional look, with soft grey shading on the puff. The compact sits at an angle across the upper arm, with part of another dark, shaded tattoo visible at the left edge.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You learned the trick from your aunt, who kept the signal mirror in her apron pocket and never once let you touch it. Open the lid, tilt the glass until the sun catches it, then walk the beam across the water in short, stubborn flashes. The powder puff she left inside has gone grey with age and still smells faintly of violets, and you have never had the heart to throw it away. Out past the breakwater the trawler Marguerite is coming home late again, and you can see her lamp wobbling in the murk.

Keep reading

Your aunt painted the inside of the lid herself, three red tulips on a green-blue ground, because she said a mirror should have something pleasant to look at while it waited. You hold it up now and watch the flowers jump as your hand shakes. Tom Harrow, who mends nets two doors down, has told you twice that a woman with a compact is no use to a boat. You told him the sea has never once asked you for advice.

Then the lamp steadies and swings toward the harbour mouth. Three short flashes come back, the old answer, the one your aunt taught you to watch for. You snap the lid shut, sit down on the cold step with the gold rim pressed against your palm, and wait for the boat to find its own way in.

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