Mixed colour tattoo of a pair of black scissors and a red and black patterned kimono figure with a black spiral eye above, on a calf.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Scissors and kimono figure on a calf

Japanese · Calf · Mixed · Photo

A pair of black scissors forms the central figure, with a black spiral eye above and a red kimono-style figure with patterned robes behind it. The black linework is bold and solid, while the red areas are shaded with fine textured patterns, including a koi-like pattern on the lower body. The design is centred on the limb against a plain skin background.

Japanese Neo-trad Calf Scissors Eye Kimono Figure Koi Spiral

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nobody in Kessane Bay would lend the good scissors to a stranger. They were the net-mender's pair, long-bladed and black with age, and they lived in a tin box under the drying racks. When the boats went out, Oto sat on the quay with a basket of cut twine and listened for the engines coming back. She said the scissors could hear a snag before a man could see one.

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One morning the boy Kenji came running up the slipway with his trousers soaked to the thigh. The Hana Maru had torn her net on something that did not feel like rock. He had seen, under the weed, a red robe spread out in the water, and a koi swimming through its folds as if the cloth belonged to it.

Oto did not go down to look. She took the scissors from the box, wiped them on her apron, and walked to the end of the mole. The crew were hauling the net hand over hand. Caught in the mesh was a sleeve of red silk, faded to pink, and nothing inside it but the cold shape of a thing that had gone down long before the harbour was built. Oto snipped the mesh free one knot at a time, and the silk slid back under the grey water without a sound.

The Hana Maru brought in her catch that week, and every week after. Oto never explained why the scissors tapped twice against the stone before each cut. The old men said it was a greeting. The boy said it was a thank you. Oto said nothing at all, and the black spiral on the lid of the tin turned slowly in the lamplight, watching the water.