Colour tattoo of a stylised figure in blue, green and pink wash on the upper back, with small black footprints above it near the shoulder.

Watercolour figure and footprints on upper back

Back · Mixed · Photo

A stylised figure in a curved, bent pose sits within a swirl of blue, green and pink wash that trails upwards towards the shoulder. The outlines of the figure are dark, while the surrounding colour is softly blended with a watercolour-like effect. Two small black footprints sit above the main piece, close to the shoulder blade, and the shot is taken at an angle with a strap crossing the frame.

Back Figure Swirl Footprint Paw print Flame Wave

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Tamsin had been sent down to the slipway before the gulls were awake, with a flask of cold tea and orders not to wade past the second post. Her uncle Ivo was already out beyond the breakwater, a dark curl in the grey water, and the dog was making a fuss on the shingle, barking at nothing and flinging wet sand up with both forepaws.

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She followed the dog's tracks down to where the tide had left a skin of shine across the flats. Small bare footprints ran alongside the paw prints, a child's by the look of them, though Tamsin was nearly fourteen and had not been a child for some years. They led straight into the water and stopped, as if whoever made them had decided to keep going and the sea had agreed.

Ivo always said the sea took what it wanted only once and gave the rest back bent into shapes. He kept a drawer full of driftwood that someone had shaped by waiting. Tamsin crouched and pressed her palm beside the smallest print, watching the light come up behind the headland, green at its edges and then blue, the colour of a wave that rises, folds over and goes down again without a sound.

When the dog finally went quiet, a shape broke the surface past the post, curved like a question mark, and it was Ivo, turning in the swell as easily as a seal. He lifted one arm. Tamsin lifted hers. Neither of them mentioned the footprints, because the tide would have them by breakfast, and that was the arrangement.