Neo-traditional colour tattoo on a calf of a stitched scarecrow doll in orange overalls holding a lollipop, surrounded by autumn leaves, bats and sweets.

Stitched scarecrow doll with autumn leaves and candy

Neo-trad · Calf · Colour · Photo

A stitched, button-eyed doll with a burlap-style head and orange overalls stands at the centre, holding a striped lollipop. It is framed by orange, red and brown autumn leaves, black bats, and wrapped sweets in teal, pink and white. The bold black outlines and smooth shading are set against a lilac halo, and the image is shown as three vertical panels of the same photograph.

Neo-trad Calf Doll Stitches Autumn leaves Bat Candy Lollipop Halloween

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dad's old orange overalls had hung on the back-kitchen hook since the pit baths stopped taking his wages, and nobody had the heart to wash them properly. I stuffed the legs with the rag bag and Gran's spare cardigan, then sewed a sack head with a row of crosses for a mouth and pressed two of her good coat buttons in for eyes. He needed something to hold, so I tied on a striped lollipop with a length of red wool.

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Halloween in Hollin Bank meant the lane was thick with conkers and leaves coming down off the beeches on the tip road, copper and rust and a brown like stewed tea. Our Michael cut bats from the lid of a shoebox and pinned them along the gate in a row. Gran wrapped the last of her toffees in twists of teal and pink paper and set them in a bowl by the door for whoever came knocking, and I told her the scarecrow was there to guard them.

Dad came up the street at half five with his snap tin under one arm and stopped dead at the gate. He didn't say anything for a long while. Then he set the tin down, tucked the doll under his arm like a sack of coal, and sat on the step with his knees cracking and his big fingers working at the torn sleeve. He mended it with the same stitch he used on his boots.

In the morning the doll was still at the gate, frost on the orange shoulders and leaves gathered round his feet. The lollipop had gone. In its place someone had left a single toffee on the gatepost, twisted in teal paper.