Traditional style tattoo on a thigh of a grinning puppet in a dark suit and red bow tie, riding a red tricycle.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Puppet riding a red tricycle on a thigh

Traditional · Thigh · Mixed · Photo

A grinning puppet figure with a pale face and red bow tie, wearing a dark grey suit, rides a red tricycle. Bold black outlines define the figure, with grey shading on the suit and solid red filling the tricycle. The design sits centred on the thigh against plain skin with a neutral background.

Traditional Thigh Suit Bow tie

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Tuesday, Hatchment Pass, rain since dawn. Mr Pell has the wagon wedged under the larch and will not hear a word about moving it. He says the grey man on the red trike is our best earner, and I have told him twice that a painted grin does not pay the carter. He only laughed and polished the bow tie with his sleeve.

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The figure came to us from a closed booth in Bristol, a jointed thing with a pale face that always looks slightly pleased with itself. Pell fitted him to the little tricycle in spring, after the Ostler boy outgrew it. Every night the puppet pedals the length of the stage, turns at the painted kerb, and comes back again, and nobody in the crowd has ever once seen the strings.

Last night the tricycle was not on the boards when I went to lock the flap. I found it out on the road beyond the pass, front wheel still turning, bell ringing in the wind. There were no prints in the mud but our own. Pell says a gust took it over the verge. I have stopped arguing and started counting the tent pegs instead.

This morning the puppet was sitting in the driver's seat of the wagon, bow tie straight, hands on the reins, as though he had waited patiently for us to finish our tea. Pell has tied him down with new cord. I have written his name at the top of this page so that whoever reads it later knows who to blame.