Skeleton resting head on hand with steaming mug
Dotwork · Black and grey · Flash
A skeleton leans its skull on one raised hand while its other hand holds a mug with wisps of steam rising from it. The bold outlines are filled with stippled dotwork shading that gives the bones and the large forearm volume. The drawing uses only black ink and grey tones on a plain off-white background, with the figure centred and no body part shown.
Find an artist for thisTake 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 reaper arrived at the lock on the Kennet just after six, the morning the ice was thick enough to walk on, and he had the look of a man who'd been up all night. He didn't hurry. He propped that long grey skull on one hand, elbow on the lock beam, and waited for me to notice him.
Keep reading
I'd been keeping the barge Pennyworth for eleven years and had settled every account on the water in that time, so I knew the drill. 'Not yet,' I said, and put the kettle on the little stove in the wheelhouse. He watched me through the window with those black pits of eyes, patient as a heron.
When the tea was stewed to tar I carried two mugs out along the gunwale. He took his in bony fingers and blew across it, the steam curling up past his teeth, and for a while we just stood there while the sun came over the water-meadows. 'You're early,' I said. 'Not early,' he said, 'just unhurried. There's a difference, and you'll find it out.'
He drank the lot, set the mug on the beam with a small click, and nodded at the gates swinging open behind me. 'Your turn to sign,' he said. I went back to the wheel and took her through, and when I looked round he was gone, leaving the mug warm on the stone. I still have it on the shelf, and I make a cup for the lock every morning, just in case.
More like this
From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.