Black and grey tattoo of a skeletal woman with flowers in her hair and a crown, inside a circle of lettering, on a limb.

Skeletal woman in a circle with light bulbs

Traditional · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A skeletal woman with flowers in her hair and a small crown sits within a circle, framed by hanging light bulbs and peony-like blooms. Fine stippled shading and bold outlines build up the skull, the hair and the background, and the ring of lettering runs around the outside edge. The design is entirely black and grey, shown in a close photograph on a limb.

Traditional Dotwork Other Skeleton Skull Woman Flower Peony Light bulb Crown Lettering Circle

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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

You arrive at the Mill Road village hall twenty minutes after the doors open, because you spent the drive rehearsing what you would say to Denise Harcourt, who was crowned Queen of the Summer Fete in 1998 and has never once let it go. The hall smells of urn tea and floor polish. Someone has strung bare bulbs on flex from the rafters, every one switched on, and the light makes the whole room look faintly embalmed and very pleased with itself.

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Denise sees you first. She wears a silver tiara she insists is costume jewellery, and her hair is piled up the way it was at sixteen, with a peony from the florist on the high street pinned behind one ear. 'You came,' she says, as though you owed her an apology and she was prepared to accept it in instalments. You ask after her children. She tells you about the divorce in the tone of a shipping forecast. Behind her a slideshow loops photographs of the sixth form Macbeth, and you are the witch who forgot her line.

Near the end of the night Pryce, the caretaker, who once confiscated your Walkman, comes round switching off the bulbs one row at a time. Nobody argues. The room sinks into grey dusk, the faces around you become only shapes, old and lovely, and you realise Denise has taken your hand in the dark without any fuss at all.

When the last bulb clicks off, Denise says, 'Well, we're still here,' and you agree, and the two of you walk out into the car park under the sodium lamps, which is more or less the same thing as going home.