Three tribal-style shark designs on a parchment background, in tan, sage green and black, shown as tattoo flash without any body placement.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Three tribal shark designs

Mixed · Flash

The image shows three stylised shark designs on a pale, textured parchment background. Two sharks, one in tan and one in sage green, are drawn with flowing, tapering tribal linework, and the black shark at the bottom has bold silhouette shapes with carved-style striations along its body. The composition places the three designs at different angles to suggest movement.

Shark Tribal Sea creature Fish Flash sheet

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the Marigold went out again on Tuesday with the wind backing north-east, and I'll be honest, I didn't like the look of the water. Skipper Tobin says a shark only follows a boat when the hold smells of herring, and we'd been filling it since Saturday. Bo Halloran swore he saw a dorsal fin cutting the swell off the Skerries, sharp as a bent knife, sliding left and then right the way they do when they're deciding whether you're worth the trouble.

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We hauled the nets at dusk and the black shape came under the stern like a shadow someone had painted onto the sea. It was longer than the dinghy. Its back was ridged and striped like wet sand after the tide has gone, and the flank pale as candle wax. Nobody moved. Tobin just lifted his cap, said good evening to it, and tipped the last of the herring over the side as a kind of apology.

It took the offering and went down slow, the way a gentleman leaves a dance. Then the three of us sat in the wheelhouse and wouldn't say a word until the lights of the harbour came up over the headland. I've decided I'll paint a shark on the forward hatch when we get home, something tall and tapering with the fins running off into the wind, so whatever's out there knows we've met and parted on good terms.

Keep the kettle warm. I'll be back by the spring tide, and I'll tell you the rest of it properly, with the lamp lit.