Colour tattoo of a blue police box with flames, swirls and a yellow starburst across the upper arm and shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

TARDIS and flames on upper arm

Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A blue police box, shown with its door panels and windows, sits in the middle of a sleeve-style tattoo that wraps the upper arm. Flames and curling swirls in orange, yellow and black surround it, with a yellow starburst behind the lower section. Bold black outlines and bright colour fills dominate the composition, and the shoulder and upper arm are visible against an autumn leaf background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the box is finished, though Mr Pascoe says it looks like a telephone box that has been to sea. I mixed the blue from the tin marked 'Dock Works', then lettered the door panel the way the old man asked, BAD WOLF in square capitals, with two dates underneath, 11-11-09 and 11-6-05. He won't say what they mean. He says a painter who asks questions has his brushes taken off him.

Keep reading

The fire went on last. Pascoe wanted flames climbing the side like the pier had caught, so I laid the orange in first, then the yellow, then black along the curls so they would read from the far end of the prom. The starburst I did in a hurry at dusk, sweeping out from the lower panel, and the wind came off the water and set the wet paint jumping. For a minute the whole thing looked like it was humming.

At closing time the door stood unlocked. Inside, which I know is not possible, the box was bigger than the ghost train's back room, with scrubbed boards underfoot and one lamp swinging from a hook. Pascoe sat on a crate eating a pear. He said I had the spacing wrong on the second date, took my brush and corrected it with a single stroke, and the numbers shifted under his hand to match a calendar I have never seen.

I have not been paid. The wages came in an envelope with a stamp from a country that doesn't have a post office yet. Tell Mother I am well, and that I have stopped taking the last tram home, because I am fairly sure the tram has been waiting for me.

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