Traditional style tattoo on an arm showing a woman with a cherry on her head, a Be Brave banner across her eyes and smoke curling from a cigarette.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Woman with cherry and Be Brave banner

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A woman's head is shown with a red cherry on top, a pale banner reading BE BRAVE across her eyes, and a cigarette in her mouth with stylised smoke swirls. The bold black outlines are paired with flat red, skin-toned and grey shading, and the cherry and lips provide the main areas of colour. Partial designs are visible at the lower edges of the frame, including a dog-like shape at lower left and a blue-tinted item at lower right.

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

Hannah Sorrel had kept the galley of the Marigold Vane for eleven years and never once lost a pan overboard, which was more than the captain could say for his temper. So when the bosun bet her a month's rum that she could not stand still with a cherry balanced on her head while the Cape swell rolled them sideways, she took down the strip of sailcloth the joiner had stencilled for the bread bags, tied it over her eyes, and asked him to start counting.

Keep reading

The word across the cloth was BE BRAVE, the ship's old motto, and the crew gathered in the companionway to watch her make a fool of herself. The cherry was the last of the preserves, pressed onto her hair with a dab of lard. She set her feet wide against the deck the way her mother had taught her to stand over a boiling copper, and she listened to the ship. The timbers groaned, the kettle ticked on its hook, and the steam curled up past her cheek like something alive. At twenty she could feel the swell in her knees. At thirty the cherry wobbled and settled. At forty the bosun's voice began to slow, and she knew he had lost count on purpose.

She did not move. She stood through fifty and sixty while the crew began to laugh, and through a hundred while the cabin boy went quiet. When the bell finally struck the change of watch, she lifted the cloth from her eyes and found the bosun already holding out a purse of coins and a jar of cherries he had been sneaking from the stores all voyage. She took the rum, gave the boy the jar, and ate the cherry from her own hair, which was the only sweet thing she had ever been dared to keep.

More like this

Traditional colour tattoo of a witch seated on a crescent moon beside a black cat, with the words Make Believe below, on a limb.
Witch on a crescent moon with black cat
Colour tattoo on the outer thigh of a woman in profile with red lips, her hair dissolving into loose red, pink, blue and teal washes.
Woman's profile with flowing hair on thigh
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
Black and grey tattoo on a calf showing two cartoon figures, one in a dark cloak and one in a cap, inside a vine wreath with the words Ain't that just the way.
Cartoon pair and lettering on a calf
Colour neo-traditional tattoo of a grey cat's face inside a pink and lace-edged frame, with scrolls above, on the forearm.
Cat portrait in a lace frame on a forearm
Watercolour-style tattoo of a mermaid with flowing red hair and a purple shell top, with a blue splash below, on the forearm.
Watercolour mermaid with red hair on forearm
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
Neo-traditional tattoo of a black cat silhouette on a red oval panel within an ornate black and grey frame, on the forearm.
Black cat in ornate frame on forearm
Traditional style tattoo of a hand with red painted nails and a pale green cuff on a forearm, with a dark grey shadow silhouette behind it.
Hand with red nails and shadow on forearm
Traditional style tattoo of a sailor woman in a rope frame with red roses and small birds, placed on the calf.
Sailor woman in a rope frame on a calf
Full colour tattoo of a woman in traditional dress holding a sword before mountains and flowers, across an upper arm and shoulder.
Warrior woman with sword on upper arm
Neo-traditional colour tattoo of a woman in profile wearing a striped head wrap, framed by a gold laurel wreath on the upper arm.
Profile portrait in a laurel wreath on upper arm

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