Sketch-style tattoo of three goldfish with black linework and orange wash, placed on the side of the torso over the ribs.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Three goldfish sketch on the side of the torso

Ribs · Mixed · Photo

Three goldfish swim across the skin with flowing fins and trailing lines. The left fish is shaded in black and grey with loose, sketchy outlines, while the two fish on the right have orange and yellow washes. The loose linework and soft colour bleed give the piece an illustrative feel, and the fish are arranged diagonally across the frame.

Ribs Goldfish Fish Fin Water

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marguerite,

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The oven was still ticking when I finished the first tray this morning, and I stood at the back window the way you always told me to, watching the yard go from black to the colour of weak tea. The three goldfish were still in the glass bowl on the flour bin where Dad left them. The black one, the one with the smudged fins, has taken to sitting near the bottom as if listening for something. The two orange ones keep chasing their own reflections in the window and bumping the glass, and I have stopped telling them off.

Mr Okafor from the chandlers came in at half five wanting his usual split tin, and he asked after you. I told him you were somewhere with a proper sea view, and he said the sea was overrated, which is the most Mr Okafor thing he has ever said. He wanted to know if the water heater was mended. It is, after a fashion, if you hit it with the spanner in the right spot. I did not tell him the spot is now mostly my own elbow.

I have been thinking about the fair in Hastings, the summer you won the first fish by throwing a ring over a bottle, and how Dad carried that paper bag home as if it held the crown jewels. We named them after the ovens, which you thought was hilarious. Dad always said goldfish only grow as big as the bowl lets them. I am changing the water tomorrow, and I will bring you the seeded loaf when you come up at Easter, if the trains behave.

Love, Ruth