Traditional-style flash design of a pin-up woman with sugar skull face paint holding a red apple, with a swallow, roses and a banner reading Wash Your Fruits.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sugar skull pin-up with swallow and apple

Traditional · Mixed · Flash

A coloured flash drawing of a pin-up woman in profile, with sugar skull face paint, a red bow in dark hair and a red apple in one hand. A blue swallow sits above her head, and two red roses sit at the base under a scroll banner reading Wash Your Fruits, with another banner reading Always beside her face. Bold black outlines, solid fills in red, blue and purple, and a cream parchment background give it a classic flash sheet look.

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 Mags,

Keep reading

The fruit barrel came up from the chandler's on Tuesday and half of it had gone to mush in the brine. Cook made me sort it on the galley deck with the sea slopping over the step. Among the bruised pears was one apple so red it looked painted, and when I picked it up the skin was cold and perfect. I nearly bit it. Then I remembered what Old Ness says about anything that shines too hard in a ship's hold, and I dropped it in the bucket for the pigs.

Ness taught me the swallow rule, one bird for every thousand miles, and the ink on his forearm is the only thing he ever got right. He had it done in Liverpool by a bloke who swore the wings would keep him out of the drink. They didn't, but he's still here, so I suppose the bird did its job on the way down and back. Yesterday he showed me the banner he had added after a bad winter, and he laughed till he coughed when I asked what it meant. Wash your fruits, he said, and I've been thinking about it since.

Here's what I reckon it's for. A woman with a skull painted across her face holding an apple out to a sailor, and two roses at her feet lined up like they're waiting to be counted. Always, the other scroll says, which is a promise or a warning depending on who's reading. I'd hang a picture like that in the galley if Cook would let me.

Tell Dad the ship's fine and the wages came through. I'll write from Valparaíso if the post still goes from there. Mind the cat, and don't let Mum near the jam.

Love, Tom

More like this

Traditional style illustration of a pin-up woman holding a red rose, with teal line tattoos of swallows and flowers on her shoulders and forearm.
Pin-up with rose and swallows
Pastel illustration of a sugar skull with a pink bow, a flower on the forehead and heart-shaped eyes, on a cream background with pink flowers.
Pastel sugar skull with pink bow
Pencil drawing of a sugar skull tattoo design with roses, a diamond on the forehead and decorative swirls, shown without a body placement.
Sugar skull with roses flash design
Black and grey flash drawing of a sugar skull couple, a woman with a flower in her hair and a man in a top hat and bow tie, framed by roses and leaves, shown without a body placement.
Sugar skull couple flash design
Traditional style flash design of a woman with antlers and a red flower headpiece, surrounded by red roses and pearls, drawn on cream paper.
Antlered woman with red roses
Black ink drawing of a sugar skull skeleton woman with a hair bun, hand fan and cigarette, on a parchment-coloured background, shown as a tattoo design with no body placement.
Sugar skull skeleton lady with fan
Neo-traditional style flash drawing of a pin-up woman with roses in her hair, holding a teacup, with a heart and spade design on her arm and the words oh dang above her.
Pin-up with roses holding a teacup
Colour flash design of a woman with a sugar skull face, red roses in her hair and a green patterned shawl, on a beige background.
Sugar skull woman with roses and green shawl
Neo-traditional flash design of a woman with a tall beehive hairstyle, red lips, two hearts and a banner scroll at the base.
Pin-up woman with beehive hair and banner
Traditional style flash design of a moth-winged woman with a skull and red roses in her hair, drawn in red, cream and black.
Moth-winged woman with skull and roses
Traditional style flash drawing of a woman's head with a red rose and green leaves in her dark hair, shown on a cream background with no body placement.
Traditional woman's head with red rose
Flash design of a woman in profile with a skull-shaped lower face, a green headscarf and a red poppy in her black hair, in a neo-traditional style.
Skull-faced woman with poppy flash

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