Book cover showing an illustrated arm with a lizard tattoo on the upper arm, with tribal spiral and figure designs below and the title Tribal Body Art Tattoos.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tribal tattoo designs on a book cover

Upper arm · Colour · Flash

The cover illustrates a pair of folded arms, with a stylised lizard design on the upper arm. Below are tribal-style motifs, including a spiral, a seated figure and a stylised animal, drawn with bold outlines and flat fills. The palette uses blue, red, yellow and black on a peach background, with the title set in a boxed panel above.

Upper arm Lizard Spiral Figure Animal Arm Tribal

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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

Dear Nell, the crate from the Leeds printers finally arrived, two days late and smelling of wet cardboard. Twelve sheets of transfers, each one a tribal design nobody here had asked for. Your brother wanted to throw the lot in the canal. I told him the spirals would sell better than the lizards, which is a lie, because the lizard is the only one that ever looks finished.

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Last night, after the bins were out and the chip shop had pulled down its shutter, I sat under the sodium lamp on Carver Street and tried one on my forearm to test the adhesive. The lizard went on crooked, its tail curling toward my wrist. I rubbed it with a damp thumb until the paper gave way. When I looked again the tail had straightened itself along the crease of my elbow, as if it had been waiting for a better angle. I told myself the lamp was playing tricks, the way it does on wet pavement after the buses have gone.

This morning the sheet was still in the pack, but the lizard on it faced the other way. I have been telling myself that is the printer's mistake. Come up on the Thursday train and check the proof with me. Bring your magnifying glass, and do not let the lizard see you looking.