Black and grey realism tattoo of a sugar skull woman with ornate filigree, long hair, smoke and a decorated pistol across the upper arm and shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sugar skull woman with pistol on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A female face in sugar skull style fills the upper arm, with dark hollow eye sockets, ornate filigree patterns on one cheek and a skull-like mouth. Long hair flows back over the shoulder, and a decorated pistol and wisps of smoke sit in the lower part of the design. The piece is rendered in fine, smooth black and grey shading with strong highlights, shown from two angles side by side.

Realism Upper arm Shoulder Sugar skull Woman Portrait Pistol Gun Smoke Hair Filigree Skull Ornament

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas,

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The frost came early this year and the beech wood has gone the colour of old pennies. I write at the kitchen table with the stove ticking, because the post cart won't come up the lane until the ruts freeze hard enough to carry it. Mrs Aske says she saw a fox carrying a glove into the trees on Tuesday, and I believe her, because I have started to believe most things she says.

You will remember Father's pistol, the one with the scrollwork Grandfather had cut into the grip. I found it in the tin under the loose board, wrapped in your old school jersey. I did not load it. I only wanted to see if the engraving was still sharp, and it is, every leaf of it. I sat with it by the window until the lamp burned low, and the smoke from the chimney drifted across the glass like a veil someone was lifting slowly.

I have been going to the churchyard on the first of the month, as you asked. The lady from the old house leaves marigolds on the wall, orange as struck matches, and no one has told her the path is closed. I ask her nothing. She asks me nothing. We understand each other well enough.

Come home at Candlemas if you can. Bring the good tea, not the grocer's dust. I will keep the pistol in the tin, and the board nailed down, and the kettle on.

Your sister, Ines