Two side-by-side black and grey realism skull tattoos on a torso, one wearing a hat with a banner reading Til my last day, the other with a veil, rose and a banner reading Til my last breath.

Two black and grey skulls with banner scrolls

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

Two skull tattoos are shown side by side. The left skull wears a wide-brimmed hat and is wrapped in a scroll reading Til my last day, while the right skull wears a mesh veil and a rose, with a scroll reading Til my last breath. Both use fine greyscale shading with smooth gradients and sharp highlights on the bone, with no colour ink.

Realism Lettering Ribs Skull Hat Veil Rose Banner Scroll Quote

Find an artist for this

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 stone came up from the quarry on a cart that smelled of wet rope, and you were chosen to cut the letters because your hand was steadiest after the dice. The client was a ship's chandler called Corvinus who wanted two markers for the same wall, one for himself and one for the woman he had married the spring before, though he was very much alive and cursing the price of pitch.

Keep reading

He dictated the words slowly, the way a man reads out a debt. For his own stone he wanted Til my last day, because he meant to keep sailing until the sea took its share. For hers he wanted Til my last breath. When you asked why the difference, he only tapped the chisel handle against your wrist and told you to mind the grain.

You spent the summer on the lettering. Each ribbon curled over the skull's jaw, and each evening you pressed a wet cloth to the stone so the shading would catch the light the way the mason had taught you. The veil you worked with a point no thicker than a hair. The rose you left until last, because your fingers were tired and roses forgive a careless hand.

Corvinus came to see the work at the turn of autumn. He read his own line and nodded. Then he stood a long time before hers and asked you to scrape the veil away and leave the bone plain. You told him the veil was what she had asked for. He said she had never worn one in her life. He paid in full and never came back for the stone, so it still stands on the harbour wall, the hat on one side and the veil on the other, both waiting for someone to say which of them was the sooner.