White line drawings of traditional tattoo flash motifs, including a skull, rose, diamond and dagger, repeated across a black duvet cover on a bed.

Traditional tattoo flash print on black bedding

Traditional · Black and grey · Flash

A repeating pattern of white linework on a black background shows classic traditional tattoo flash motifs such as skulls, roses, diamonds, daggers, eyes, crosses, teeth, swallows and flowers, with the word TATTOO appearing several times. The drawings are simple outlines with small dot and cross accents, and there is no shading. The pattern is printed on a duvet cover and pillowcases on a bed, with no skin or body visible.

Traditional Skull Rose Diamond Dagger Eye Cross Swallow Flower Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the swallows came back to the lock at Hythe Bridge the same week you left, and I've decided that counts as a sign. Mr Pryce came down the towpath on Tuesday with a roll of tracing paper under one arm and a tin of Indian ink under the other. He asked if he could sit in the cabin out of the wind. The stove was lit, so I let him in, and he spent the whole afternoon drawing at the table while the kettle went cold twice.

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Everything he made was white line on black card, with no shading at all. A skull with a swallow coming out of its jaw. A rose with an eye set in its middle. A dagger through a diamond, a tooth with a little cross above it, and the word TATTOO running along the bottom like a tide mark. When I asked why he didn't bother with colour, he said colour was for people who were already sure of what they wanted. Then he tapped the swallow and said each one stood for a thousand miles sailed, and that he'd never been further than Gloucester in his life.

I laughed at him, I'm afraid. Then I looked properly at the dagger and the diamond and saw he meant them as a kind of map, every symbol a port he'd never reach. He pinned the sheets above the stove and said I could keep them so long as I didn't pay him, because a drawing is only worth what someone is brave enough to carry.

Here's what I've done, and you're not to tell Mum. I've written to the waterways office about the mooring fees and sold the car. In spring I'm taking the barge down to the sea with a swallow painted on her bow, and I'm calling her Thousand Miles, so you'll know where to find me. Come and help with the locks. Love, Ellie.