Small red bow with white polka dots and a black outline, tattooed on the inner wrist below a raised hand with orange nail varnish.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small red polka-dot bow on a wrist

Forearm · Colour · Photo

A small bow shape filled with red and white polka dots, outlined in black, sits on the inner wrist. The linework is clean and bold with flat colour and no visible shading. The hand is raised against a dark brown upholstered background, and the tattoo is placed low in the frame, near the bottom centre.

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

You tie the ribbon to the bottom of the ship's bell rope the morning the Marguerite clears Gravesend, because Mrs Tebbutt on the quay said a bell wants a bow the way a bride wants a veil, and you have never once in nine years of sailing argued with a woman from Deptford. The ribbon is red cotton, dotted white where the dye bled, and it looks absurd against the tarred hemp. The second mate calls it a sweetheart's favour. You tell him to mind his own rigging.

Keep reading

Off Finisterre the weather turns. Four days of green water over the rail and the galley fire goes out twice. The bell rings wild in the gale, and every time you hear it you think of the ribbon fraying, the white dots gone grey with salt. On the fifth night you climb the foremast in the dark with a marlinspike in your teeth, and you find the bow still there, sodden and stubborn, knotted tighter than any sailor would knot it.

When the Marguerite limps into Lisbon with a split topsail and a dead cook, the chandler asks why the bell has a bow on it. You shrug. He offers a shilling for the ribbon. You refuse, and he laughs, and you realise you have been carrying the thing in your head every watch like a lucky coin.

Coming up the Thames the following spring, you cut the ribbon free at last, fold it into your oilskin, and hand the bell rope to the new boy with a fresh knot to tie. The bow goes in your breast pocket, flat as a pressed flower, and at night under the lamp you check the red dots are still showing.

More like this

Small colour tattoo of a butterfly with teal and lilac wings and a semicolon for its body, placed on the inner wrist.
Semicolon butterfly on a wrist
Black fine line tattoo of a dragonfly with spiral-tipped wings on the inner wrist, in a fine line style.
Small dragonfly with swirled wings on a wrist
Fine line brown outline of a butterfly on the top of a foot near the ankle, with dark painted nails visible at the top right.
Butterfly outline on a foot
Small solid black dragonfly tattoo on the inner wrist and forearm, shown against a pale background.
Small dragonfly silhouette on a wrist
Traditional-style moth tattoo with black outlines and soft pink and grey shading on the back of a hand.
Moth tattoo on the back of a hand
Two small black butterflies with stippled wing detail, one larger and one smaller, tattooed on the inner forearm near the wrist.
Two butterflies on a forearm
Colour tattoo of two butterflies with teal and purple wings and black outlines on the inner wrist, with a hand and dark glitter nails raised above.
Two butterflies on a wrist
Small solid black bow tattoo on the inner wrist of a hand raised against a dark green plant background.
Small bow tattoo on a wrist
Realistic colour tattoo of an orange and black butterfly with spotted wings on the inner wrist, against a blurred green background.
Orange butterfly on the inner wrist
Black and grey tattoo of three butterflies on the wrist, with the hand raised against a dark background.
Three butterflies on a wrist
Close photo of a small fine-line black tattoo of a stylised winged motif with curled ends on the inner wrist, with the hand raised against a plain wall.
Fine line winged motif on the wrist
Red bow with white polka dots and a black outline tattooed on the upper shoulder, beside a black bra strap.
Red polka dot bow on shoulder

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