Two forearms with traditional tattoos of a sugar skull, red roses and a swallow, shaded in black, grey and red ink.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sugar skull, roses and swallow on both forearms

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

Two forearms are shown side by side, each covered in tattoos. The left arm has a grey sugar skull with a black heart-shaped eye, daisies and a swallow, with large red roses above and below. The right arm has a dark floral design with red roses, a row of pearl-like beads and a red shaded sun shape. The bold black outlines and solid red fills suggest a traditional style, with grey shading on the skull and leaves.

Traditional Forearm Sugar skull Rose Swallow Daisy Skull Bead Leaves Heart

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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

Mariana had run the lost property hatch at Harrowgate Junction for eleven years and thought nothing could surprise her any more. Then, at twenty to midnight on a wet Thursday, a man set a ceramic sugar skull on the counter, wrapped in a newspaper that smelled of diesel. Its forehead was painted with daisies, and its left eye was a black heart, chipped at one corner.

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He said he had left it on the 21:14 and did not wait for a form. After he had gone she unwrapped the paper. Inside was a ticket stub for Carlisle and a crepe paper rose, its petals gone soft at the edges. She shelved the skull between an umbrella and a cricket bat, and it grinned at her every time she reached for a biro.

Three weeks passed and nobody claimed it. Then a fresh red rose appeared on the counter each Monday, sometimes with a swallow's feather tucked under the stem, and she began to suspect the man had never wanted the skull back at all. She thought he might be somewhere on the platform, waiting for a sign that she had kept it safe.

On the last Monday of the month she carried the skull out to platform four and set it on the ledge of the waiting room window, facing the tracks. The 21:14 pulled in, its doors sighed open, and a voice she did not know called out the name printed on the stub. She did not turn round. She simply lifted her hand to the glass.