Traditional tattoos on a forearm showing an elephant over a Truth banner, a star with a Beauty banner, a Freedom banner above a figure, and a heart with a Love banner.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Stacked traditional tattoos on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

Four bold tattoos are stacked down the forearm: an elephant above a banner reading TRUTH, a black star with a BEAUTY banner, a FREEDOM banner above a small figure, and a red heart with a LOVE banner. The bold black outlines and flat fills of red, pink, orange and grey are typical of traditional American flash. The motifs are arranged in a vertical column along the forearm, with the heart nearest the wrist.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

Keep reading

You will think I have gone soft, but I have started dancing with the bald fellow from the gasworks because his feet are the only ones on the floor that keep time. Mr Orme plays the Starlight Rooms every Saturday under a star-cut mirror that hasn't been polished since the Coronation, and the lights make the whole floor look like a pond with the bottom knocked out. Mother would have a fit. Father would ask whether the fellow owns his own bicycle.

Last week the circus came through on the Hastings road and left a poster nailed to the back door of the hall, an elephant stood up on its hind legs under the words TRUTH IS THE BIGGEST THING IN THE TENT. I took it down before the lads could use it for kindling. It's pinned above my bed now, the corner curling where the damp gets in. Mrs Pryce at the ticket booth says the only honest thing in a dance hall is the tiredness on the musicians' faces at midnight, and I am beginning to think she is right.

I'm writing because I have decided to go, Nell. Not to London, that's too grand, but to the coast where you said the boarding house wants a girl for the breakfasts. I'll take the poster, if the circus man doesn't want it back. Dance with me once more before I go, in your head at least, and count the beats out loud the way you used to.

Love, Peg

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