Blue line drawing of a torso covered in traditional flash designs including a rose, skull, diamond, heart, anchor, snake, candle and ship.

Torso covered in traditional flash motifs

Traditional · Other · Colour · Flash

A simple blue line illustration of a torso outlined in peach, filled with tattoo-style motifs. The motifs include a rose, a skull, a diamond, a heart, a candle, an anchor, a snake, a ship and an eye, spread across the chest, sides and hips. The linework is bold and even with no shading, and the image is composed as a single silhouette on a plain white background.

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

Dear Nell,

Keep reading

The boat came in on Tuesday with the hold full of mackerel and Ronnie Stroud's hand wrapped in a tea towel, so you can imagine the mood on the quay. I am writing this at the back of the Lighthouse Café because the shop by the slipway is shut until Monday and I promised Mam I would tell you everything properly.

Mr Abel, the man with the green awning, drew up a sheet for the skipper before we sailed. It was a whole figure in outline with the flash packed onto it like a sampler: a rose at the shoulder, a snake coiling round the ribs, a ship, an anchor low on the hip, a skull with a sad mouth, a diamond and a candle. He said every line had to be bold enough to read across a wet deck in the dark. The skipper pinned it inside the wheelhouse door, and the lads have been pricing their own additions ever since. Ronnie wants a second anchor.

Here is the thing that made me write. Mr Abel said the snake was for the sea and the candle was for whoever stayed ashore keeping watch. The diamond was for luck and the eye was for seeing weather coming. I said that was a lot of meaning for a bit of ink, and he just laughed and said nobody had ever asked him to explain the arrows, they only asked for them to be straight.

We sail Thursday on the tide, weather permitting. Keep the lamp lit in the front room, will you. I will look at that candle on the wheelhouse sheet every night, and I think it will do the job.

Love, Tom

More like this

Illustration of a muscular cartoon man with a moustache and pipe, his arms, torso and legs covered in dense line-drawn tattoo designs in teal on yellow.
Cartoon figure covered in tattoo designs
Teal line drawing of a mermaid with scale details and a tapering tail on a white background, shown as a design rather than on skin.
Teal mermaid line drawing
Blue line drawing of the state of Texas filled with bluebonnet wildflowers, a botanical tattoo design shown on white paper with no body placement visible.
Texas outline filled with bluebonnets
Black line drawing of a woman in profile with flowers in her hair, a small earring and bare shoulders, shown as a tattoo design.
Profile of a woman with flowers in hair
Line drawing of a figure with a black and purple tattoo on the upper arm and forearm, beside a blue gradient dragon design with dotwork scales and a curled tail.
Blue dragon designs with an arm tattoo outline
Black ink drawing of a sitting cat built from angular geometric facets filled with fine parallel hatching, shown on a plain white background.
Geometric cat design in black ink
Black and grey pencil sketch of a tiger stalking downward with its tail curling above it, drawn as a tattoo design on a plain pale background.
Pencil sketch of a tiger with curling tail
Blue line drawing of two roses, buds, a small five-petal flower and leaves on a white background, in an engraved botanical style, shown as a tattoo design with no body placement.
Line drawing of roses and leaves
Black tribal-style panther design with flowing curved lines, clawed paws and a curled tail, shown on a white background as a flash drawing.
Tribal panther design, black silhouette
Black line drawing of a woman with her hair in an updo and a hoop earring, shown as a single-weight fine line design on a white background.
Line drawing of a woman with an updo
Two navy ink line drawings of peacocks on white, one with a fanned tail of eye motifs and one with a paisley body, in a henna-inspired style.
Two peacock designs in henna style
Black tribal-style design of a sitting cat with bold flowing shapes and white negative-space lines, shown as a stencil-like drawing with no body placement visible.
Tribal-style sitting cat design

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