Colour realism tattoo of a great white shark with open jaws and bared teeth across the forearm, with red blood-like splashes behind it.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic shark on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A large shark with its jaws wide open and teeth visible fills the forearm, shown in smooth blended shading. The shark's body is blue-grey with white highlights, while red and pink tones spread across the mouth and the area behind the head. The arm is crossed over a black t-shirt, and part of another tattoo is visible higher up the upper arm.

Realism Forearm Shark Teeth Blood

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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 Nan, the big top is still damp from Thursday's rain, so we've strung the tarpaulin over the Sea Wagon instead, and the whole thing smells of diesel and wet rope. Mr Ashby wants the shark repainted before we reach Ilkley. He's had Gerry up the ladder three days running, touching up the gums with a brush he says cost more than the van. I told him the teeth looked fine from the road. He said the road is exactly where they need to look.

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The shark is nine feet from snout to tail, painted on hessian stretched over a frame of rusted hoops, and its jaws open onto the booth where you pay a penny to step inside. Inside there is nothing but a tin bath, a paraffin lamp and an old sea-chest with a cracked lid. Ashby tells the children the shark swallowed a purser in 1911 and never gave him back. Lies, obviously, but they shriek every time, and I've started to like the sound.

Last night the lamp guttered at closing and I stayed behind to sweep up sawdust. The red wash behind the teeth caught the moonlight through the flap, and for a moment it looked wet, as if the thing had only just finished its supper. I stood there holding the broom like a fool. Then Gerry came in with a flask and said the paint was dry enough to bite, and we laughed until he had to sit down on the chest.

I'm enclosing the penny I found wedged in its lower teeth. Keep it for the tea caddy. Ashby reckons we'll be in Harrogate by the end of the month, and I'll write again from there, provided the paint holds and the shark doesn't get any ideas.