Black line drawing of a tribal-style tattoo design across the shoulder blade and upper back of a sketched male figure seen from behind, with a katana hilt at the waist.

Tribal shoulder and back design sketch

Shoulder · Black and grey · Flash

A pencil-style sketch shows a man seen from behind, with a bold black tribal tattoo design spanning his left shoulder blade and upper back. The tattoo uses thick, tapering black linework with sharp points and curled forms, while the body is drawn in light grey shading with loose sketch lines. A katana hilt rests diagonally at the lower right against a plain white background.

Shoulder Back Tribal Sketch Figure Sword

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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

The cloakroom at the Palais has never once been asked to mind a sword, so when the long bundle in oilcloth lands on your counter you push it straight back. The man on the other side only watches you, the way the ceiling fans chop the light into slats across the floorboards. 'It's only a loan, love,' he says. 'Keep it till the last waltz.'

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You hang it on the hook between a fox stole and a stuffed pheasant and return to your ticket tin. Beyond the doorway the band slides into a slow foxtrot, and couples turn through the haze in loops that remind you of the curled scrollwork you have been painting all week on shopfronts along Briggate. Those thorned curls taper to nothing at each tip, like a match dropped in water. Your brush hand still aches from them.

The last waltz ends with a cough from the drum kit. The lights come up grey and ordinary, and streamers lie in the corners like spent fireworks. He returns, takes the bundle, and unwraps a single fold. The grip is bound in black cord, wound in tight diamonds, and in the gap of the fold you catch the same hooked points you drew on a sheet of card on Tuesday, tracing them with your thumb while the kettle boiled.

He nods as though you have passed some test. 'Good hand,' he says, and goes out into the rain without his coat. You only notice it is still on the hook after he has gone, and you realise you are the only one who knows he will be back for it.