Black and grey realism tattoo of stars and a crumpled flag covering a man's upper arm and shoulder, with a white tank top worn beside it.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Stars and flag upper arm sleeve

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A close side view of a man's upper arm and shoulder, cropped above the neck, showing a large tattoo of stars and crumpled flag-like fabric. The shading is soft and detailed, with strong contrast between dark creases and lighter highlights that give the stars and folds a three-dimensional look. The tattoo fills the arm against a dark background, with a white sleeveless top at the edge of the frame.

Realism Upper arm Shoulder Star Flag Stripe

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The flag came off the Morag in February, wrapped round a lobster pot as if the sea had tried to keep it. Dad said it wasn't worth the washing. I washed it anyway, in the bath with the cold tap running, while the gulls argued on the roof of the net store and the whole of Skerrin pretended not to watch from its windows.

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It had been white once, then red and blue, and then the Atlantic had taken its colours and left it grey as a ship's ribs. Only eleven stars were still legible, stitched by hand in thread the wrong shade of blue. Mrs Tulloch, who mends the sails for the creel boats, held the corner up to the window and said whoever sewed those had been in a hurry or in love, and she couldn't tell which. The creases ran deep as cart tracks, and the salt had furred them pale.

Dad wanted it burnt on the shore at the turn of the tide. I didn't argue. I spread it on the kitchen table under the paraffin lamp and took the carpenter's pencil from the drawer where he keeps his tide tables. I didn't draw the stars. I shaded the folds, pressing hard into every dark crease so the high points would lift off the paper like they were catching light from the side.

By midnight the stars stood out of the cloth as if someone had lit them from underneath. In the morning I hung it over the back of the chair, where the window could find it. Dad came in for his boots, looked at it for a long while, and said nothing. Then he took his pipe off the sill and left it lying on the table, next to the pencil, as if that settled something.