Traditional style colour tattoo on a forearm showing a ship in a bottle framed by a red and black compass flower and a red flower with black leaves.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ship in bottle with flowers on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A bold traditional tattoo shows a bottle-shaped outline containing a small sailing ship, with a red and black compass-star flower on the left and a red flower with a white centre on the right. The black outlines are heavy and the shading in the bottle and leaves uses grey and black, while the petals and sails are filled with solid red. The design fills the frame diagonally across the arm against a blurred indoor background with framed pictures.

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

Dear Thea, the furnace at Puteoli has cracked two bricks this week, so Master Nikanor has us blowing small work by lamplight, which is how I came to make the bottle you asked about. Do not laugh. The captain of the grain ship Hesperis brought it in on Tuesday, a flask no wider than a man's fist, and asked for a ship inside it, with its sails set and a compass rose scratched on the stopper so he could find his way home from any harbour.

Keep reading

Getting the ship through the neck took me an afternoon of patience and two burned fingers. Nikanor showed me the trick: fold the hull flat, a hollow of pale glass cooled slowly, then tip it upright once it is past the mouth. The sails are the hard part. They must be red, the captain's wife's colour, so I ground cinnabar into the molten glass and hoped it would not turn brown as it cooled. It mostly did not.

The captain came back at dusk, held the bottle against the lamp for a long time, and then asked how I had got a ship with its masts up inside. I said the same way you get a letter inside a jar, by being patient and a little foolish. He laughed, paid double, and said his wife would hang it by the window where the morning light comes in first.

Well. I have wrapped a spare flask in straw for you, with a smaller ship. Do not let the baker's boy near it. Write soon and tell me whether Father has finished the new roof.

More like this

Traditional style tattoo of a woman in profile with a red rose in her dark hair and a small black spider on a thread, set against a grey web pattern on the upper arm.
Woman in profile with rose and spider
Neo-trad style forearm tattoo of a grey shaded rose and buds above two red roses, with grey leaves, on the outer forearm.
Red and grey roses on a forearm
Neo-traditional colour tattoo of two red roses, a rosebud and a faceted diamond with green leaves, on a forearm.
Red roses and diamond on a forearm
Colour realism tattoo of a pink rose with a water droplet and a faceted gemstone, framed by black dotwork and mandala patterns on a forearm.
Realistic rose and gem forearm piece
Traditional style tattoo of grey roses with black outlines and orange and green leaves, sitting on the forearm near the elbow.
Grey traditional roses on a forearm
Black and grey realism rose tattoo with pink beads and swirl linework on a forearm.
Shaded rose with beads on forearm
Black and grey traditional-style bouquet of roses and small flowers with leaves on the upper arm.
Black and grey floral bouquet on an upper arm
Traditional-style red and yellow rose tattoo with green leaves and bold black outlines, shown on the forearm.
Traditional rose and leaves on an arm
Traditional style skull in a red paisley bandana, framed by red flowers and dark leaves, tattooed on the outer thigh.
Skull in a red bandana with flowers on the thigh
Neo-traditional tattoo of a skeleton couple in an ornate cameo frame, framed by large orange roses and green leaves on a limb.
Skeleton couple cameo with orange roses
Black and grey traditional tattoo of an eye with teardrops inside an elongated box, framed by flowers and leaves, on an upper arm.
Eye and teardrops in a box with flowers
Black and grey rose tattoos with leaves and buds on a forearm, with a blank band of skin left between the two sections.
Black rose tattoos across a forearm

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