Black and grey realism tattoo of a skeleton in a fedora and suit playing a double bass, across the ribs.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Skeleton double bass player on ribs

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A skeleton wearing a fedora, suit and tie plays an upright double bass, with smoky wisps of grey surrounding the figure. The shading is smooth and highly detailed, with strong contrast across the bones, fabric and the bass's scrolled body. The tattoo fills most of the frame against lightly toned skin, with the ribs area visible at the lower edge.

Realism Ribs Skeleton Suit Smoke

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The bass came off the cart before the rain did, and Tomas Vell carried it under the fish market awning by the neck while the gulls fought over the scraps. He stood it on its spike on the wet cobbles and tuned the A string twice, because the damp had made it sulk. Nobody paid him. At that hour there were only porters with their collars up and women buying eels by weight, and none of them looked round when he began.

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On the third wet Thursday a thin man in a grey fedora stopped at the pitch and asked whether Tomas played for the dead. Tomas said he played for anyone who stood still long enough. The stranger bought a tea he did not drink, set it on a crate, and waited. When the first low note went out under the awning, the braziers along the row bent their smoke down to the cobbles as if to hear better. The porters stopped. A cat sat down beside the bass and did not move.

Tomas played until St Clement's struck seven, and the stranger never once lifted his cup. His long fingers went over an invisible neck the whole time, patient as a clerk, and his jaw stayed set in the same easy grin. When the last note faded, the hat lay empty on the stones and the tea had gone cold and grey. The porters swore they had seen nobody under it at all.

Tomas packed the bass that evening and found, folded inside its case where no hand had put it, a single bar of music. It was written in his own hand, and the time signature was for two players.