Black and grey realism tattoo of a waving flag with white stars across the inner forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic waving flag on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A realistic tattoo of a waving flag with a field of white stars covers the forearm, shown from a close angle. The folds of the fabric are shaded with soft gradients, highlights and deep dark areas that give it a sense of movement and volume. The stars sit in the upper left of the flag and the stripes fade out toward the lower edge of the frame against a blurred background.

Realism Forearm Flag Star

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 had come round to the north before dawn, and by the time Nell reached the gate the flag was already tearing itself free of the pole. She had told Ray a dozen times the cord needed replacing, but Ray had been dead four winters and the cord was the least of what the farm had lost. She stood on the frozen mud with a bucket of feed in one hand and watched the cloth crack like a sail.

Keep reading

It had been his father's, bought from a catalogue in 1971 and washed so many times the field had gone the colour of slate. The stars still held, seven of them climbing the upper corner in a loose hook, though one had faded almost to nothing where the sun hit it through the parlour window every afternoon. Nell set the bucket down by the water trough. The hens came out to inspect it, then went back in, unimpressed.

She climbed the gate, unhooked the top corner, and let the flag come down into her arms, heavy and cold and smelling of diesel and wet wool. Folding it was harder than she remembered. Ray had always done it, pressing the triangle over and over until the edges lined up, and she made three attempts before the corners agreed.

When it was done she tucked it under her arm and looked up. Above the shed the cloud had split, and somewhere behind it the sun was going down over the ridge. She counted the stars against the pale sky, one, two, up to seven, and then, because the light was going, she counted the one that had faded and gave it to him anyway.