Colour tattoo of an underwater reef scene with sea turtles, tropical fish and coral across the upper arm and shoulder, shown from three angles.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Underwater sea turtle scene on an upper arm

Upper arm · Colour · Photo

The tattoo depicts an ocean scene with several sea turtles swimming near the surface beneath rays of sunlight, with yellow and orange fish and branching coral on the reef below. The shading is smooth and gradual, with soft blues and greens in the water and bright orange, pink and purple in the coral and fish. Three photographs show the same sleeve-style piece from the front, side and back, filling the upper arm and shoulder.

Upper arm Shoulder Sea turtle Fish Coral Underwater Ocean

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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

Don't look at me like that, boy. The nets never lie, and neither do I. Pass me the twine and hold the lantern steady, because this is the bit your father always left out when he told it to you.

Keep reading

Forty years back the Morwenna Rose went out past the Scilly light with her hold half empty and two green turtles tangled in the mesh off the stern. Big as coal scuttles, their flippers still going like oars. Skipper Abel Trewin wanted them over the side before the crew docked our supper money for the lost haul. I was sixteen and daft, so I cut the first one loose with my own knife, and the rest of the lads followed my lead like sheep through a gap in a wall.

What came after is the part nobody believes. The water under the hull went from grey to a green so clear you could count the barnacles on the keel. Turtles rose beneath us in a slow line, lifting their heads toward the sun as it broke through the cloud, and down on the reef below there were fish like butter-coloured coins darting past coral that branched up pink and orange like a town nobody had ever built. Abel stood at the rail with his cap in his fists and didn't say a word the whole hour.

We came home with nothing in the hold that year. Abel never fished the Scilly ground again, and when his heart gave out he left the boat to me. So I'm telling you, the sea pays what it likes. Now hand me that twine and mind the knot, because the next one's yours.