Black swirl-line design of a Mickey Mouse head on a white background, with a red heart in the right ear, shown as a flash design.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Swirled Mickey Mouse head with red heart

Mixed · Flash

A stylised Mickey Mouse head is drawn in bold black lines, with the left ear formed by a tight spiral and the right ear by a looping curve. A small solid red heart sits inside the right ear, the only colour in the image. The design is centred on a plain white background with generous empty space around it.

Mickey mouse Heart Swirl Ear Cartoon character

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz,

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The big top has gone soft in the rain since you left, and Mr Penrose has been grumbling about canvas prices as if the weather were my fault. He has also handed me the paintbrushes for the booth boards, which he says is only fair now you've run off to sea. Yesterday I finished the sign for the shooting gallery. I painted the round-eared mouse you used to draw on the backs of my school jotters, the one with the curled ear you said looked like a cinnamon bun left out in the sun. Then I gave the other ear a small red heart, because you always said the nice ones had one.

Penrose came over with his pipe and said the heart was too much, that the gallery needed to look respectable for the vicar's wife. I told him the vicar's wife had already bought three goes at the coconut shy and didn't seem to mind. He grumbled, then stood looking at the board for a long time. Then he asked if I'd paint a second heart on the spiral ear, to even things out. I said no. One heart is enough for anyone who walks past looking for it.

The wind got up the next morning and the board blew off its nails and skidded across the field to the generator truck. A boy from the lighting crew chased it halfway to the river and brought it back under his arm like a shield. The red heart was still bright in the grey light, the only colour for miles. Penrose hung it back up himself this time, without a word.

Come home when the fair reaches Doncaster. I'll leave the light on in the gallery so you can find the way.

Love, Nell