Fine line black ink tattoo of a small whale on the inner wrist, with a desk, calculator and mug in the background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small whale on the inner wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A small whale is drawn in black ink on the inner wrist, shown as a single thin outline with a dot for the eye. Hatched shading along the upper body and a tapering tail give the whale some form. The arm is shown against a light desk with a calculator, a white mug and a keyboard.

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

Now sit down, the lot of you, because the fish is going cold and I have not finished with the whale. You all think it's a little gift for the bride's aunt, and I let you think so. But I was there the morning in Mousehole when Tom Penhale rowed out with a ring in his waistcoat and no notion how to ask. The sea was flat as a plate. Not a gull in the sky. Then the water lifted beside the boat, long and grey, slow as a sigh, and the whale rolled one eye up at him like a clerk checking a ledger.

Keep reading

Tom said, 'I'm only after the girl from the chandlery,' and the whale, which had heard that line from better men, sank a little lower and let him look at its tail. The flukes were the colour of wet slate. It waited while Tom found his nerve, and when he finally said her name out loud, the whale blew once, a great white breath that soaked him to the skin, and swam off east towards the Lizard without a backward glance.

Here is the thing nobody tells you about whales. They remember the ones who speak plainly. Tom went home dripping and proposed that evening on the quay with his hair still stiff with salt, and she laughed so hard she said yes before he'd finished. Forty years they had, and a dozen children who could all whistle like a blowhole.

So when the bride's mother asks me for a story, I give her the whale. The ring is still on Tom's hand, the sea is still flat, and the whale is still swimming east, if you care to look.

More like this

Close photograph of two small grey fine line swallow tattoos on the inner wrist and forearm.
Two swallows on the inner wrist
Fine line black hummingbird tattoo in flight on the inner wrist and forearm of a person's arm.
Hummingbird in flight on a wrist
Solid black silhouette of a soaring bird tattooed on a wrist, with a cream knitted sweater cuff below.
Soaring bird on a wrist
Small fine line tattoo of a bird holding a flower, outlined in black with pale pink details, on the inner wrist.
Small bird holding a flower on wrist
Black and grey fine line outline of the world map on the inside of a wrist, with the hand resting palm up on a light surface.
World map outline on a wrist
Fine line black tattoo of a feather threaded on a chain bracelet across the inner wrist.
Feather and chain bracelet on a wrist
Black and grey shaded wing tattoo on the inner wrist of a raised hand with dark painted nails.
Small wing tattoo on the wrist
Small black fine-line script reading warrior with a bird silhouette in flight, tattooed on the inner wrist of a light-skinned hand.
Warrior script and bird on a wrist
Two small fine line tattoos: a tiny solid heart on the side of a finger and a dotted outline bow on the inner wrist, both in black ink.
Small heart on finger and bow on wrist
Small black fine line tattoo of a hummingbird in flight on the inner wrist and forearm.
Hummingbird in flight on a wrist
Black and white photo of a small fine line outline paper plane tattoo on the inner wrist, with the palm facing up.
Paper plane on the inner wrist
Small black fine line tattoo of a swallow in flight on the upper arm, below a rolled white shirt sleeve.
Swallow in flight on upper arm

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