Colour tattoo of a woman in profile with a sailing ship in her hair, red cheek circles and blue accents, on the outer thigh, shown in two photos.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sailor woman with ship in hair on thigh

Neo-trad · Thigh · Mixed · Photo

A woman's face in profile wears a sailing ship in her swept-back hair, with a ship's wheel and roses on the lower part of the design. The linework is bold and sketchy, with soft grey shading and watercolour-like splashes of red and blue. The design fills the thigh, and a second photo shows the tattoo from a wider angle against tiled walls.

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 lamp at Skerrow Head had gone dim again, and Marta Quill climbed the iron stairs with a cloth in one hand and her father's brass ship's wheel under the other arm, because she had promised him it would be polished before the tide turned. Halfway up she stopped to tie back her hair. The wind off the water always wanted it, and her father had said a keeper's daughter should never let the sea have the ends of her.

Keep reading

At the top she found the glass streaked with salt and, beyond it, a ship coming in too close under the rocks. Three masts, grey canvas hanging in ribbons, and a hull striped red at the waterline. No one was at the wheel. The ship was drifting toward the Teeth, where forty years of wrecks lay under the kelp, and Marta understood that the sea had asked for a light and got none.

She rubbed the brass until it shone, hung the wheel in the window where the beam swept the water, and lit the red glass her mother had kept for storms. The dusk turned violet on the swell. The helmsman, a boy with salt crusted in his lashes, saw the red and turned his ship toward it. He steered for the harbour he knew by its light, not for the rocks he feared.

By morning the sails had gone up the coast like smoke. Marta found a rose from the wall her mother had planted lying on the step, its petals wet, a length of tarred rope knotted round the stem. She kept the wheel in the window after that. When the wind came off the water she tied her hair back with the rope and let the petals go where they liked.

More like this

Black and grey neo-traditional tattoo of a pin-up sailor woman with a ship and constellation in her face, shown on a limb in two close-up photographs.
Sailor pin-up with ship and constellation
Sketchy black and grey tattoo on a calf showing a woman's face framed by two birds and poppy flowers, with peach and teal accents.
Woman's face with birds and poppies on a calf
Sketch-style tattoo of a woman's face framed by poppies and two songbirds, with peach and teal accents, on a calf.
Woman portrait with birds and flowers on a calf
Black and grey realism tattoo of a geisha with a lotus flower and a butterfly on the upper arm and shoulder.
Geisha portrait with lotus on upper arm
Traditional style tattoo of a sailor woman in a rope frame with red roses and small birds, placed on the calf.
Sailor woman in a rope frame on a calf
Colour neo-traditional tattoo on a thigh showing a woman's face in profile above a grey shark, with a sailing ship and red sun behind her.
Woman, shark and sailing ship on a thigh
Sketch-style colour tattoo of a woman's face in a harlequin diamond hat, with red cheek blush, on the outer thigh.
Woman portrait with harlequin hat on thigh
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 beside a red rose inside an ornate gold frame, shown on the outer thigh from two angles.
Woman portrait cameo with rose on thigh
Black and grey neo-traditional tattoo of a woman holding a moon, with a rose below, on the thigh, shown in a three-panel close-up collage.
Woman with moon and rose on thigh
Black and grey Medusa head with snakes wound through her hair, tattooed in dotwork shading on the side of a torso, over the ribs.
Medusa with snakes on the ribs
Neo-traditional colour tattoo of a woman's face framed by teal hair, octopus tentacles and peach shells, on the upper arm.
Woman portrait with teal hair and tentacles on upper arm

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