Black line drawing of a woman with long hair and closed eyes, showing a Japanese-style sleeve of cherry blossoms, a koi-like fish and a skull on her arm.

Woman with Japanese-style sleeve and skull

Japanese · Upper arm · Black and grey · Flash

A black line illustration of a woman with long flowing hair and closed eyes, resting her head against her arm. The arm carries a sleeve of cherry blossom flowers, a bird, wave-like bands and a large koi-like fish with a skull beside it, all drawn in fine, even outlines. The drawing is uncoloured and set on a white background with decorative swirling borders around the edges.

Japanese Botanical Upper arm Forearm Woman Long hair Koi Skull Cherry blossom Flower Bird Sleeve Wave Hand

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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

The landlady at Saltmere House keeps the bath water hot only until nine, so you learn to wash before the tide turns the light grey. Mrs Ledger has one rule for lodgers who draw: the front parlour table is for tracing, the kitchen table is for eating, and nothing leaves the dresser. You break it on the third Tuesday, when the rain hits the bay window like thrown gravel and you need the lamp more than you need her good opinion.

Keep reading

The sheet belongs to Dessa Fry, who runs the ink shop up on the harbour steps and pays you by the outline. Her design is a koi climbing a wave, every scale ruled in tight rows, and beside its flank a skull rests like a pale stone the fish has swum past. You ink the scales as though you are counting coins. The skull is the one thing you cannot make look kind, so you keep its eye sockets open and its teeth plain and let the water do the softening.

Mrs Ledger comes in with a tray of cocoa and stops behind your chair. She says her husband Walter drew fish on the backs of ferry tickets before the war, and that he never once finished a fin. She picks up your pen, leans over the paper, and adds a single curl of wave line at the skull's edge, quick and certain, the way a woman signs for a parcel.

When she has gone, you look at the curl for a long time. It is the only line on the sheet that was not planned, and it is the only one that makes the skull seem to be floating rather than sinking. You leave it there. In the morning, when Dessa asks what the flourish is, you tell her the fish has somewhere to be.