Traditional style tattoo of a purple dripping candle with a grey smoke wisp and a brass holder, on the thigh.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Purple dripping candle with smoke

Traditional · Thigh · Colour · Photo

A bold tattoo of a candle with purple wax running down its sides, topped by a grey wisp of smoke. The thick black outlines and flat, saturated fills give it a classic traditional look. The candle sits upright in a golden holder at the base, with the smoke curling above it against pale skin.

Traditional Thigh Candle Smoke

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The wind off Scarrow Sound has got into the cottage again, and you are the only one awake to shield the candle before it gutters. Your grandmother's purple church candles are the last of the box she bought at Lerwick market in the hard winter, and you have been burning them one at a time since the boat stopped coming on Tuesdays.

Keep reading

You carry the candle down the stone stairs to the store, where the lamp oil has run low. Wax runs over your knuckles and sets in pale ridges, the way it always does, and you think of Mags Halcrow, who swore the drips were the island's way of keeping count. Every storm, another tear down the sides. Every tear, a name you could not say aloud without her scolding you for superstition.

Outside, the smoke from the last candle rises in a grey curl past the window, bending west toward the mainland light that has not shown since Friday. You lift the holder, its brass gone dark at the rim, and carry it to the sill. The flame stands steady for the first time all night.

You wait until the wick settles, then pinch it out and let the smoke go where it wants. Somewhere below, the sea keeps its own tally.