Coloured drawing of a ram skull with grey horns, a red gemstone eye set in pearls, red roses and leaves, and an orange sun behind, in a neo-traditional style.

Ram skull with roses and a rising sun

Neo-trad · Mixed · Flash

The drawing shows a ram skull in the centre with curled horns, a red gem set in a ring of small pearls where the eye would be, and a pale yellow-to-orange sun with radiating rays behind it. Red roses with white highlights and green leaves frame the skull on the upper left and lower right. The skull and horns are shaded in grey pencil with bold black outlines, while the roses, sun and leaves are in warm colour, on a plain light background.

Neo-trad Skull Horn Rose Sun Leaves Gemstone Pearl

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

Dear Ines,

Keep reading

The ram came up out of the peat the week the second sun failed to set, and I should have left it where it lay. Tomas wanted it cleaned for the altar in the hall. You know what he is like about bones. He scraped the skull with a bit of wire and found the stone still set in the left socket, a red thing the size of a plum stone, ringed round with pearls gone the colour of old teeth.

We argued about it over the sheep count. He said the roses could go back on the wall where the old glass used to be, the ones we grew from cuttings in the dome, and that the sun would look better with a face to rise behind. I said the sun did not need a face. He laughed and called me a dry stick, which is fair. I went out to the east fence anyway at dawn and watched the orange come up over the ridge, rays and all, the way the old pictures show it, and for a minute I understood why he wanted the skull there.

So we put it on the wall. The gem catches the light first, before the sun clears the hill, so every morning there is a small red eye looking out over the valley before anything else wakes up. The children call it the early one. Nobody argues about that any more.

Tomas died in the spring. I keep meaning to tell you that properly. Tonight I sat under the skull with the lamp off and watched the ridge go pale, and the stone threw its one small spark across the flagstones, and I thought, well, somebody has to be the first to see it.

Write soon. Bring the good thread.

Mara