Colour neo-traditional tattoo of a conch shell, scallop shell, starfish and seaweed with bubbles, sitting on the top of a foot and ankle.

Seashells and starfish on a foot

Neo-trad · Other · Colour · Photo

A pink conch shell, a yellow scallop shell and an orange starfish sit in front of green seaweed and blue bubbles, suggesting an underwater scene. Bold black outlines define the shells, while softer blended shading gives the blue background a watery gradient. The vivid palette fills the design across the top of the foot, running up towards the ankle against a dark backdrop.

Neo-trad Other Seashell Scallop shell Starfish Seaweed Bubble Underwater

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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

The last train has gone, and the platform at Gull Cross is empty except for you and the lost property box. Mr Abernethy locked the ticket office at nine and left the box open on the bench, the way he always does in August, because nobody ever comes back for anything. Inside you find an umbrella with a broken spoke, a child's sandal, and a pink conch the size of a fist, its lip chipped, a bent wire hook glued to its back.

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You lift the conch to the lamp. Inside its whorl there is a dusting of blue, like the light that sits under the water at noon. A luggage label hangs from the hook, written in pencil: Found on the Tuesday sands. Not for keeping. Please return to whoever I was walking with. The string is green, the colour of the weed that grows along the sea wall, and it has been knotted by someone who meant to come back.

Down the line a signal clicks off and a lamp glows amber. Bubbles of mist lift from the marsh and drift past the fence, one after another, as if the sea has been holding its breath. Mr Abernethy's collie barks once from the signal box. You check the timetable pinned by the door. The first train out is at 6.40 tomorrow, and it goes east, away from the water.

You leave the conch where it was, but you take the label. Then you set a scallop shell on the bench, the one with a yellow fan as bright as a lit match, and place a starfish beside it like a paperweight. Down the steps the tide has come in over the shingle, and the water is turning from green to blue to something warmer. In the morning someone will find the box full of small treasures and wonder who was walking with whom.