Traditional colour tattoo of a black and white cat wearing a sailor hat, flanked by red flowers and a yellow banner reading MMXIV, on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tuxedo cat in sailor hat with roses and banner

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A black and white cat wearing a striped sailor hat looks out with bright green eyes, its pink nose and whiskers drawn in fine lines. Red flowers with green leaves sit on either side, and a yellow banner beneath the cat carries the Roman numerals MMXIV in black lettering. Bold black outlines and solid fills with soft grey shading give the design a classic flash feel, set against pale skin and a white fabric background.

Traditional Forearm Cat Flower Rose Banner Roman numeral Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The cat came aboard at Saltery Quay the morning we were meant to sail without her, which Mr Dunmore swore was bad luck, and then he went and fetched her a hat. Nobody asked where the hat came from. It was blue and white ticking, a little too big, and the boy who stitched it said he'd copied the pattern from an old chart of the Channel. She wore it low over her ears, the way other cats wear a sulk, and she looked out at the grey water as though someone had paid her to.

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We called her Mizzen because she would only sleep up in the rigging. Rations were thin that winter, and the cook kept a tin of pilchards back for her. The mate said it was theft from the Crown. The cat said it was none of his business. Every Sunday she sat on the capstan while the men queued for letters, and she never once got one herself, though she got more fuss than any of us. The date stitched on the signal flag that year was the year we were launched, and she seemed to take that as a personal matter.

When we limped back into Saltery in the spring, the harbourmaster counted heads, then counted again, then looked down at the hat on her head and went quiet. Three of the crew had gone over the side off the Horn. Mizzen had not gone with them. She leapt onto the quay before the gangplank was down, sat in the rain by the chandlery door, and waited for men who were not going to walk off that ship. Then she trotted up the hill towards the chapel, hat and all, and I never saw her again.