Realism chest tattoo of two grey skulls with roses and lilies, and a red anatomical heart bound by a chain, across the chest and shoulders.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Skulls, roses and anatomical heart on chest

Realism · Chest · Mixed · Photo

A chest piece shows two skulls, one on each side, each with a rose on the shoulder and lily flowers below. A red anatomical heart sits in the centre, wrapped with a chain that runs across the chest. The skulls and flowers are rendered in soft grey shading with fine detail, while the heart carries red and brown tones, giving a mixed palette.

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

Ada Crane kept the forge on Sallow Row, and every man who went down the Lady Pit carried a link of her chain on his lamp hook before his first shift. That was the custom, and nobody remembered who had started it.

Keep reading

Jem Holloway was the best of the hewers and the least careful with himself. When the roof came down in the February heat, the cage brought up only his lamp, still burning, hanging from a short length of chain. Ada took it off the hook and sat with it through three nights. She heated a lump of ruddle in the forge until it went the colour of a fresh wound, shaped it with her thumbs into the shape a heart makes, and wound his chain around it, tight, so it could not slip.

The women of the row came one by one with their own links, the way they did for every death in the village, and each hooked a new link on until the chain ran from the forge door to the bottom of the pit road. Ada said it was for holding the thing together, not for keeping anything down. Nobody argued with her.

That spring the spoil heap above the Lady Pit went white with lilies. Nobody had sown them, and the old men said the heap was too poor for anything to grow. The women said nothing. They went up with their baskets and carried the flowers down to the chapel, and the ruddle heart sat on the forge shelf, still wrapped, with the lamp hanging beside it, unlit.

More like this

Small colour tattoo of a pink peony with green leaves on a stem, placed on a woman's upper chest near the collarbone, in a botanical neo-traditional style.
Pink peony and leaves on the chest
Black and grey dotwork heart with a world map, ribbon banners reading friendship and loyalty, and dotted chains across the sternum and upper abdomen.
Heart and world map chest tattoo with banners
Back of a woman with two traditional-style pin-up tattoos in red and grey, one with two swallows and one with an anchor, across the upper back.
Twin seated pin-up figures with swallows on a back
Black and grey realism tattoo of a horned animal skull with roses across the centre of a person's chest, above a black lace top.
Horned animal skull and roses on a chest
Watercolour-style tattoo of a swallow in flight with red poppies and black birds across a person's upper back.
Swallow and red poppies across the back
Neck and chest with a red-shaded skull surrounded by grey lilies on the chest, a grey butterfly on the neck, and a tattoo on the upper arm, in realism and botanical styles.
Red skull and lilies on chest and neck
Black and grey mandala tattoo with dotwork shading and lotus-style petals across the centre of a chest, worn under a black top.
Mandala and lotus chest tattoo
Colour realism tattoo of an anatomical heart peeling open a zipper across the upper chest, with hands resting over the lower chest.
Anatomical heart in a zipper on chest
Sketch-style skull with purple and blue poppies and anemone flowers tattooed across a person's upper back and shoulder.
Skull and poppies across a back
Two mirrored black and grey dinosaur skull tattoos with fern fronds across the upper chest and shoulders.
Twin dinosaur skulls with ferns on chest
Black and grey fine line tattoo of an anatomical heart with shell-like textures on a person's chest, above a black bra.
Anatomical heart with shell textures on the chest
Realism back tattoo of two shaded grey roses set within black lace ornament, with teal and red butterflies across the upper back.
Lace back piece with roses and butterflies

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