Colour neo-traditional tattoo on a calf of a woman with a red bow in her hair, holding red boxing gloves, above a banner reading TOUGH LOVE.

Woman with boxing gloves and Tough Love banner

Traditional · Calf · Colour · Photo

A woman with a red and yellow bow in her hair looks out from between two red boxing gloves, with a dark blue background behind her head. A cream banner with the words TOUGH LOVE sits along the bottom edge of the design. Bold black outlines frame flat areas of red, yellow, blue and skin-toned ink, and the design is centred on the lower leg.

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

You tape her knuckles on the lower deck of Vesta Ring, where the gravity is kind to nobody and the crowd stamps on the grating until the lamps shiver. Mara sits on the stool with her red gloves laced to the wrist and the yellow bow still pinned in her hair, because she told you she would not fight a single round without it. Through the wall you can hear the bell from the upper tiers, thin and metallic, like someone tapping a cup.

Keep reading

"They want you on the Ceres shuttle by the week's end," you say, and you keep your voice low so the boy in the next corner cannot hear. "Good money. Dry air. No more of this."

"You said that about the last shuttle," she says, and flexes her fingers inside the leather. "Tough love, you called it. Shove me out the airlock and call it a favour."

She goes out and takes four rounds from a boy half her weight, dropping her guard so he can land on her cheek and her ribs, and every time you want to shout she shakes her head at you through the ropes. In the fifth she stops moving altogether and lets him hit her until the bell saves them both. Back on the stool she spits a red thread onto the canvas and looks at you the way she looked at you when she was nine and you first put a glove on her hand.

You understand then that the banner you painted on the wall of the gym was never for her. You unpin the bow from her hair and set it on the rail. "Ceres," she says, and she picks up the ticket you have been holding, folded small, all week.

More like this

Fine line tattoo of Snow White holding a red apple to her lips, outlined in black with red accents on the leg.
Snow White holding an apple on a leg
Neo-trad tattoo on the outer thigh of a woman with pearl headwear and drop earrings, holding a red anatomical heart beside a black feather.
Woman holding a heart on a thigh
Colour traditional tattoo of a pin-up woman with bangs, a blue feather fan and teal clouds across an upper arm and shoulder.
Pin-up woman with feather fan on upper arm
Colour traditional tattoo on an upper arm of a 1920s-style woman in a red headband with peacock feathers, pearls and a red rose with a black centre.
Flapper with peacock feathers and rose on upper arm
Colour tattoo of a cartoon woman with flowing dark hair and autumn leaves on the thigh, with a red cartoon creature at the top right.
Cartoon woman with flowing hair on thigh
Colour traditional-style tattoo of a cartoon woman with curly blonde hair, a hand cupped to her mouth, above three candy heart shapes with lettering, on skin.
Cartoon woman and candy hearts on skin
Black outline tattoo of Snow White holding a red apple, with red accents on the apple and her dress, on a limb of the body.
Snow White holding a red apple
Colour traditional tattoo of a woman with a feathered headpiece, pearls and red roses on the outer thigh.
Woman portrait with roses on a thigh
Traditional tattoo of a sailor pin-up girl in a white hat and red top, with an anchor and green laurel wreath, on the upper arm.
Sailor pin-up with anchor and laurel on upper arm
Colour traditional tattoo of a pale-faced woman with blue hair and flowers in an orange frame, beside a red rose, on the upper thigh.
Pale-faced woman in a frame with a red rose
Traditional colour tattoo of clasped hands over a red heart, framed by a gold rope border, a scroll banner reading See you on the other side, and blue flowers, on the thigh.
Clasped hands in a heart on a thigh
Fine line tattoo of a outlined female figure with one arm raised to her head, with a solid red heart over her torso, on the inner forearm.
Single-line woman with red heart on forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.