Paper tattoo request form with pen drawings of an anchor, a dreamcatcher, a feather, a flock of birds and an infinity symbol with the word Word.

Tattoo request form with anchor and dreamcatcher designs

Black and grey · Flash

A beige paper form titled Typical girl tattoo form shows hand-drawn tattoo designs, including an anchor, a dreamcatcher, a feather, a flock of birds and an infinity symbol with the word Word in script. The drawings use black ink with light shading and fine outlines. A hand with red nails is visible at the lower left, and the form has blank lines and placement options written on it.

Anchor Dreamcatcher Feather Bird Infinity Script Word Paper

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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

Nobody at the shop had ever filled in the blank line properly, which is why Pat kept the old request forms in a biscuit tin under the counter. Dev found it on his first Monday and read them aloud while the kettle boiled, laughing at the anchors and the dreamcatchers drawn by someone who had never seen one. "Word or quote?" he read. "Of course you do."

Keep reading

Pat took one from him, tapped the infinity sign with a biro and said nothing for long enough that Dev stopped laughing. The form was dated 1998. The birds had been sketched in the top corner with a ruler's edge, and the placement box had been circled twice, hard enough to dent the card. The word line was empty. Someone had left it that way, deliberately or in a hurry.

"Ruth Halloran," Pat said. "Came in on a Tuesday, sat where you're standing, said she'd think about the word. She went to Spain the week after and sent a postcard saying the sea was too blue to be honest about. Never came back for the tattoo."

Dev took the pencil from behind his ear and held it over the line. He wrote Still here, looked at it, rubbed it out, and wrote Go on instead. Pat read it, snorted, and pinned the form to the corkboard beside the fine liners, where the birds sat in their little cluster above the feather. Later, locking up, Dev noticed the paper had torn along one edge, and the flock looked as though it had finally got off the page.