Fine line black ink tattoo of a small whale with two bubbles on the inner forearm, against a blurred purple background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small whale tattoo on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A small outline of a whale, with a tail raised and a tiny spout, sits beside two small dots that may represent bubbles. The linework is thin and single weight in black ink with no shading, and the tattoo is set on the inner forearm near the wrist. The background is a soft, out of focus purple, which keeps attention on the small design.

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

The whale was the size of a thumbprint, and Marguerite had drawn it on the back of a ferry ticket while the boat rolled out past the breakwater. Her grandfather had taught her that a whale always breathes before it dives, so she gave it a spout first, a single curl of ink, and then the tail lifting like a question. Two bubbles followed it down the margin. Dorothy at the kiosk in Porthleven had laughed and said nobody wanted a cartoon fish, but the whale was not a fish, Marguerite had told her, it was a mammal that remembered its own mother's song.

Keep reading

The harbour master's boy, Tomas, brought the ticket back in March with the corner torn off. He had found it under the bench where the nets were mended, and he could not make out what the drawing was for. Marguerite took it from him and folded it into her coat, not explaining. The gulls were loud over the slipway. A trawler was coming in low with its lights still on, and the whole bay smelled of diesel and cold salt.

She drove up to Penzance that week and paid a woman with silver rings to copy the whale onto her wrist, one clean line at a time, while the radio played a shipping forecast nobody listened to. It stung less than she expected. When it was finished she looked at the small grey shape against her skin and saw that the bubbles were still rising in the right direction, towards the hand, towards the waves she would go back to on Sunday.

More like this

Fine line black tattoo of a small whale with two bubbles on the inner wrist and forearm.
Small whale outline on wrist
Close-up of a small black fine line tattoo of a jagged mountain range with a curved shape above it, on the inner wrist.
Mountain range tattoo on the wrist
Fine line black tattoo of a small fox sitting on the inner wrist, with the hand raised against a blurred brown background.
Small fox on the inner wrist
Fine line black tattoo of a cat face with pointed ears and whiskers on the inner wrist, next to a green patterned sleeve.
Minimal line cat face on a wrist
Small solid black teapot tattoo with cross-hatched shading on the inner wrist and forearm of a light-skinned arm against a white background.
Teapot silhouette on the inner wrist
Fine line black outline tattoo of a small dog on the side of a finger, held up against a pale pink brick wall.
Small dog outline on a finger
Fine line black ink tattoo of a small rabbit in profile on pale skin, set against a blurred green background.
Small rabbit tattoo on skin
Fine line black tattoo of a sitting cat with whiskers and a curled tail on the inner upper arm.
Single-line cat on an upper arm
Fine line tattoo of two hands hooking little fingers together, placed on the upper back near the neck.
Pinky promise hands on the upper back
Close photo of a small black fine-line tattoo of a cat's face with closed eyes, nose and whiskers on a forearm.
Minimalist cat whiskers on a forearm
Black and white photo of a fine line tattoo of a dachshund on the inner forearm, set against pleated fabric.
Simple dachshund line tattoo on a forearm
Fine line black tattoo of a geometric, faceted horse on the inner upper arm of a person wearing a rolled denim shirt.
Geometric horse on upper arm

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