Retro-style flash drawing of a dark-haired mermaid with a teal tail, surrounded by orange fish, pink coral and stylised waves, with no body placement shown.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Vintage mermaid with fish and coral

Traditional · Colour · Flash

A stylised mermaid with long dark hair blowing to one side reclines in the water with a teal scaled tail and a sparkling highlight along her body. Three striped orange and white fish swim around her, with a branch of pink coral rising from the lower left and dark blue wave lines at the base. The flat colour, bold outlines and soft cream background give the piece a mid-century illustration look typical of vintage tattoo flash.

Traditional Mermaid Fish Coral Wave Hair Tail Sea

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The mermaid had hung over the door of the Tern Hotel since before the war, and by the spring of 1958 the sea had taken most of her scales. Walter Pike climbed the ladder with a tin of teal enamel hooked on one finger and a brush behind his ear, while Mrs Haddow stood at the bottom with her arms folded, watching as though he might tip the whole lot into the harbour.

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'She was never this thin,' Mrs Haddow said. 'And her hair went sideways, like the wind had hold of it.' Walter did not argue. He had seen the original up close only once, the year his father carried him along the front on his shoulders, and he remembered the fish better than the woman: three striped fish, orange as marmalade, crowding round her as if they'd been promised a fare. He laid the first wave in blue and let it dry while the gulls wheeled over the car park.

When he reached her flank he mixed a white so bright it hurt, and dabbed the star where the light would catch it from the road. Mrs Haddow came up two rungs to look. 'Put a fish by it,' she said quietly. 'My Eddie always said the fish were the only ones who stayed.' Walter painted the smallest fish last, tucked under the tail where nobody on the road would notice, and climbed down with his knees aching.

That evening the tide came up over the groyne and the lamps came on along the front. Mrs Haddow stood in the lane and read the sign for a long time. Then she went inside, and Walter heard her humming before the door shut.