Traditional style tattoo of a sailor woman in a rope frame with red roses and small birds, placed on the calf.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sailor woman in a rope frame on a calf

Traditional · Calf · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo shows a stylised woman with bobbed dark hair, a sailor cap decorated with a red rose, and a sailor collar, framed by a coiled rope oval. Red roses and dark green leaves wrap around the top of the frame, with silhouetted birds against a red and grey sky behind her. Bold black outlines, flat fills and some shading give it a classic look, with a knotted rope and red and white tassels at the base.

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 rope across Gallow Gorge had frayed to the thickness of a finger, and the carrier from Tennick would not cross until someone made it sound again. Nell Carrow stood on the cold planks at the eastern anchor with her father's marlinspike in her belt and a coil of tarred hemp over one shoulder. She counted the strands aloud, the way he had taught her, so the wind could not steal the numbers from her.

Keep reading

The pass had no sea in it, but the sky above the ridges turned the same red a harbour did at dusk, and the crows that roosted in the pines were already flying south in long ragged lines. Her father had said a rope remembered every hand that had worked it. He had also said a splice made in a hurry would hang you just as neatly as a bad knot. So she worked slowly, unlaying the worn strands, tucking each new one under the old with the fid, her fingers stiff and then numb and then nothing at all.

When the lamp came bobbing up the track, it was the carrier's boy, sent to ask whether she meant to sleep on the bridge. She told him the weather was turning and he could tell the carrier to wait. He looked at the sky, then at her, and went back down without arguing, which she took as a kind of respect.

At first light the splice was done, bound with a red and white tassel, the same knot her father had tied on every rope he ever trusted. The first mule stepped out onto the planks, the whole span groaned and swayed, and then it settled. Nell pulled her father's cap from her coat pocket, shook the frost off the rose he had once laughed at, and set it on her head. Then she went down to the inn for coffee.

More like this

Colour traditional tattoo of a woman with a feathered headpiece, pearls and red roses on the outer thigh.
Woman portrait with roses on a thigh
Traditional style tattoo of a woman in a patterned headband with a rose in her hair and large roses below, on the upper arm.
Traditional woman portrait with roses on upper arm
Colour traditional style tattoo of a woman in a patterned headband with pink and yellow flowers and a red rose, on the outer thigh.
Traditional woman portrait and rose on thigh
Neo-traditional tattoo of a woman wearing a feather headdress and pearls inside a red crescent moon, placed on the outer thigh.
Woman portrait with feather headdress on thigh
Traditional style tattoo on a forearm showing a woman's face with a raven perched on her head and a red rose with green leaves below.
Woman with raven and rose on a forearm
Black and grey traditional tattoo of a woman with wavy bobbed hair and a large stippled rose below her shoulders, on a lower leg.
Woman portrait with rose on a calf
Colour traditional tattoo on an upper arm of a 1920s-style woman in a red headband with peacock feathers, pearls and a red rose with a black centre.
Flapper with peacock feathers and rose on upper arm
Neo-traditional tattoo of a woman in a black wide-brimmed hat with red roses and a lace collar, on a lower leg.
Woman in wide-brimmed hat with roses
Traditional style tattoo of a woman's face with bobbed hair, a red headband, red cheeks and red lips on a limb.
Flapper-style woman's face with red headband
Traditional colour tattoo of a pin-up woman with a rose in her hair, a blue anchor on her neck and a red compass star, on the upper arm.
Pin-up woman with rose and compass star
Neo-traditional tattoo of a woman with dark hair, red roses and a pearl necklace across the shoulder and upper back.
Woman portrait with red roses and pearls
Colour neo-traditional tattoo of a woman with black hair, a red patterned bandana, gold chain earrings and a plaid collar, placed on the forearm.
Woman portrait with red bandana on a forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.