Traditional-style tattoo of a red snake coiled around a blade with a green hilt, on the inner forearm of a hand raised in a pink glove.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Snake and blade on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A forearm is raised so that the hand, wearing a pink nitrile glove, sits above it against a pale bedsheet. A red snake coils around a vertical blade with a green hilt, with a rope-like shape at the lower end. The bold black outlines and flat fills of red, green and yellow give the piece a classic traditional look, and the tattoo sits in the centre of the frame.

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

Dear Nell, the snow has shut the moor road since Tuesday, so I am writing this at the long table by the kitchen range with the landlord's cat asleep on my bag. Mr Ardern, the bonesetter who came in off the coach with us, has spent three evenings teaching the stable lad how to hold a lancet, though he will not let the boy touch the case itself. It is brass-cornered and smells of camphor, and inside, in a nest of grey wool, there is a corked glass tube holding a grass snake that has been coiled round a steel blade for longer than either of them has been alive.

Keep reading

Yesterday the lad split his palm on a bucket hoop and Ardern sent me for the lamp. I held the edges of the cut together while he stitched it, and he talked the whole time about the old physicians, who put a serpent on every staff because a bite that is cleaned and watched will mend, while a bite that is cut out will not. I said that sounded like something a man says to feel clever. He laughed and agreed with me, then told me the snake was only there to remind a surgeon to keep his blade clean, which I think is the first sensible thing I have heard him say.

This morning the fire went out in the night and the pump froze, so I came down to find the lad standing at the window with the case open on the sill. He had the glass held up to the grey light and was deciding whether keeping the thing was cruel. Ardern was still asleep upstairs, snoring like a broken bellows, so the decision was ours. We drew the cork together, and I expected nothing, but the snake lifted its head slowly from the blade and the lad let out a breath I could see in the cold air.

We left the window open for a minute only, then shut it and set the glass back in its wool. It will not be going anywhere until the road is clear, and neither will we. Write soon, and tell Mother the lamp is mended and I am warm enough.

More like this

Black and grey botanical laurel wreath tattoo tied with a ribbon on the inner forearm, above a relaxed hand wearing rings.
Laurel wreath on the forearm
Black and grey dotwork lotus tattoo with geometric petals on the wrist and forearm, with small dots on the back of the hand.
Geometric lotus and dots on a wrist
Two hands palms down showing small black fingertip tattoos of a rose, spider, arrow and snowflake, with bolder traditional-style designs on the backs of the hands.
Finger and hand tattoos with black nails
Colour world map tattoo on the outer forearm of an outstretched arm, with red, pink, teal and yellow continents on pale skin.
World map tattoo on a forearm
Close view of a hand resting palm down on white fabric, with a red dripping band tattoo wrapped around the middle joint of the ring finger.
Dripping red band on a ring finger
Blackwork hand tattoos showing a spider, scales, a crescent moon and a chain across the backs and fingers of both hands, with white painted nails.
Hand tattoos with spider and crescent moon
Dark brown octopus tattoo with tentacles wrapping the back of a hand and fingers, placed on the hand.
Octopus tentacles across a hand
Black ink eye tattoo on the palm, with a small triangle and a crescent moon on the fingers, in a fine line style.
Eye, triangle and crescent moon on hand
Black and white photo of an open palm with a black linework outline of a hand gesture tattooed across it, placed on the palm.
Hand outline tattoo on palm
Small black symbol tattoo on the side of a finger, shown in a hand held in an OK-style gesture against a blue wall.
Small symbol tattoo on finger
Ornamental hamsa hand tattoo with a multicoloured eye in its centre, on the inner forearm of an arm resting against light bedsheets.
Hamsa hand with eye on a forearm
Two hands held together show small black fine line tattoos of a simple curved mark on each wrist, in a fine line style on the forearm.
Tiny fine line wrist tattoos on two hands

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