Traditional-style woman with swallow, diamond and skull

Traditional · Neck · Colour · Flash

A stylised illustration of a woman in profile, looking upwards, with a finger-waved bob, red blush, a pearl necklace and a light sleeveless top. Her neck and chest carry a green-outlined swallow, a diamond and leaf motifs, and a skull sits on her upper arm. The bold black outlines and flat, solid fills with soft shading and a dark background give it a classic traditional look, with colour inks dominating the palette.

Traditional Neck Chest Upper arm Woman Portrait Swallow Diamond Skull Leaves Pearl Cross Hair Profile

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

By the third week the swallows had found the gutter above the chandlery again. You stood on the quay with the pearls wound round your fist and counted them the way your mother taught you, one bead for every day since the boat failed to come round the point. Forty-one beads. Mr Pascoe at the jeweller's would give you fifteen pounds for the strand, provided you did not mention that the clasp had been mended twice.

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He weighed them on brass scales and turned each one under the lamp, sucking his teeth. Good water, these. Your mother knew her business. He pushed the notes across the counter with one finger, as if the money might carry something catching. Outside, the wind had got into the bunting and was snapping it like a whip. You folded the notes small and thought of the diamond your father had drawn for you on the back of a tide table when you were six, and how he said a diamond was only coal that had refused to give up.

The mainland steamer left at six. You had a carpet bag, a cardigan with one good button, and a tin watch with a skull engraved on the case, bought from a sailor who swore it kept honest time underwater. At the foot of the gangway a man with a ledger asked whether you were travelling alone. You said you were not. That was true in the only way that counted. The swallows would follow the boat as far as the headland, dipping over the wake, and then they would turn back for their wall. You would keep going.

On the upper deck you took out the last loose bead, the one you had kept back, and dropped it over the rail. It fell into the grey without a splash, and the swallows did not turn around.