Black ink tattoo of two koi fish swimming in a circle on the inner wrist, in a brushed Japanese style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Two koi forming a circle on a wrist

Japanese · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Two black koi fish are arranged in a circle, one above the other, with their bodies curving around a shared centre. The fish are rendered with soft, brushed shading and small dabs of ink suggesting fins. The tattoo is in black ink only and sits on a light-skinned wrist against a dark, softly lit background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The last of the lettering had to be finished before the wagons rolled out of Carlisle, and Ada Pell had only three brushes that still held a point. She dipped the largest in black ink and stood on the tailboard of the ring wagon, where the old paint had blistered in the rain. Mr Harrow wanted two fish on the side panel, nose to tail, so that the eye would follow them round the curve of the wagon before it came to rest.

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Harrow had sold the last horse in March and the bank had taken the tent poles in May. Nobody came to the ring any more except the Thursday regulars, a bailiff's clerk and two boys who ate the free peanuts and kept asking when the tiger would return. Ada did not tell them the tiger had gone to a zoo in Leeds for the price of a van engine.

She painted the first koi in long, dragging strokes, then the second, leaving a pale gap at its back where the wood could breathe through. Her hand shook at the tail. When she stepped back, the fish on top seemed to be turning to follow the one below, and she thought that if she closed the circle she would be sealing something in.

Harrow came round at dusk with a lamp and a bottle. He read the panel for a long time. 'They're chasing,' he said. 'Always,' said Ada, and she left the gap where the circle should close. The wagon rolled out at first light, and the two black fish went on around the wheel arch, each keeping the other just out of reach.

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