Black and grey traditional arm sleeve tattoo with a skull in a bottle, a lady portrait and roses across the upper arm and forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Traditional black and grey arm sleeve

Traditional · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The sleeve shows a skull in a glass bottle with the word GOODBYE, a lady portrait with a cross headpiece, a swallow, roses, a dagger and a snake. Bold black outlines and solid black fills dominate, with grey shading on the portrait and roses. The design wraps from the upper arm down to the forearm against a dark background and a white t-shirt.

Traditional Upper arm Forearm Skull Bottle Rose Swallow Dagger Snake

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ada,

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The net came up torn again this morning, so we spent the whole watch on our knees in the fish room with needles and twine, and Skip swore the Marjorie Hale was cursed. I told him the only curse aboard is the cook's porridge. You'll laugh at that, I know you will, because you always said I couldn't keep a secret or a sentence. Mam blames the Gulf Stream for my cracked hands, but I reckon it's the salt.

I've been counting the swallows I've earned. Two on the left shoulder, one for each Icelandic run, and Ronnie Pyle wants me to take a third for the bottle, the one with the skull and GOODBYE on the label, which he says is the only honest thing a man can carry out of port. I said I'd think on it. The lady with the cross on her hat I'll keep for Nell, though she never let me near the shop with a pencil. Tell her the dagger is for the cook and the snake is for the purser, and that they can argue over who gets which.

Mind the back step when Dad's in, and tell him the trawler is hardly ever sick now. We land on Thursday if the weather holds. I'll bring you a box of the good sugar-coated herring, the kind you pretend to hate.

Your loving brother, Tom