Traditional black and grey tattoo of a woman holding a parasol on a tightrope above an alligator, inked on an upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tightrope walker and alligator on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A woman in a patterned dress holds a red parasol while balancing on a rope between two poles, above an open-jawed alligator rising from water with lily pads. The right half shows the tattoo healed on an upper arm, with bold outlines, solid black fills, grey shading and sunburst rays behind the moon-like circle. The left half shows the original coloured flash design on paper for comparison.

Find an artist for this

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

Mavis Pryce would not step out onto the wire until the wind dropped off the Wash, and the rope had been damp since Tuesday. Dolly, the alligator, lay in the tank below it the way a sleeping dog lies under a kitchen table, patient and unimpressed, waiting for someone to fall in. The lily pads Eddie had floated for the crowd were already turning brown at their edges.

Keep reading

Mavis carried the red parasol like other women carried hymn books. Her mother had sewn the dress from a parlour curtain in Hull, pale star-flowers blurred by years of washing, and Mavis swore the pattern kept her eyes on something other than the drop. Each evening when the lamps went up round the field, she walked the rope between the brass-topped poles while Dolly lifted her head, slow as a drawbridge, to watch her cross.

On the last night of the season the rope went slack at the halfway mark. Mavis felt it through her soles before she saw it, a small sag like a hammock taking a weight, and she stopped with one foot lifted. The moon had slid clear of the marquee roof and was sitting on the water, and Dolly was not looking at her at all. Dolly was looking at the moon, the way you might look at a fish you could never quite reach.

Mavis did not hurry. She opened the parasol with one hand, let its red shadow settle over the tank, and stood there until the moon drifted off the water and the rope tightened again under her. Then she walked the last six paces home, and when she reached the pole Eddie was waiting with his cap in his hands, saying nothing, which was the kindest thing anyone had done for her all summer.

More like this

Neo-traditional colour tattoo of an art deco flapper woman in profile wearing a beaded headpiece, on the upper arm.
Art deco flapper in profile on an arm
Two side-by-side photographs of dotwork hand tattoos on a lower leg: the left with a lace-like wrist mandala over green leaves, the right holding red freesia with crystals and moon symbols.
Two hands with flowers and crystals on a calf
Neo-traditional tattoo of a red rose with a rosebud and green leaves, with a grey and black spider and web on a forearm, shown in two close-up photos.
Red rose and spider on a forearm
Traditional style tattoo of a sailor woman in a rope frame with red roses and small birds, placed on the calf.
Sailor woman in a rope frame on a calf
Traditional style tattoo of a woman in profile with a red rose in her dark hair and a small black spider on a thread, set against a grey web pattern on the upper arm.
Woman in profile with rose and spider
Black and grey neo-traditional tattoo of a woman holding a moon, with a rose below, on the thigh, shown in a three-panel close-up collage.
Woman with moon and rose on thigh
Black and grey botanical tattoo of an anatomical heart framed by chrysanthemums, thistles and foxglove on a forearm, shown in three side-by-side views.
Anatomical heart and flowers on a forearm
Black and grey tattoo of two cats curled together in a circle among blackberry branches, leaves and flowers, on the upper arm.
Two curled cats with blackberry branch on upper arm
Traditional style colour tattoo of two hands clasping a red heart with a dotted outline and yellow flowers with green leaves, on the upper arm.
Hands holding a heart with yellow flowers
Two black and grey photographs side by side: on the left, an anatomical heart with a rose on the forearm in dotwork shading; on the right, an anatomical heart filled with flowers on the thigh.
Anatomical hearts with roses and flowers
Colour traditional tattoo of a 1920s-style woman in profile with a feather headpiece, yellow roses and pearl strands on the upper arm.
1920s woman profile with roses on an upper arm
Colour neo-traditional tattoo on a calf showing a woman on a tightrope holding an orange parasol, with willow leaves above and a green crocodile below.
Tightrope walker and crocodile on a calf

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.