Broken-hearted over her husband's affair with her younger sister Cristina, Frida recreated her sorrow and anger in this painting. Her own pain being too great to depict, she projected it onto another woman's misfortune. A newspaper report about an unfaithful woman murdered in an act of jealousy provided Kahlo with the subject matter for this work. The murderer defended his actions before the judge by saying: "But it was just a few small nips!" The violent deed makes symbolic reference to Frida's own mental state and her own emotional injuries. Kahlo confided in a friend that she sympathized with the dead woman since she herself felt "murdered by life"...a reference to the yearlong affair between Diego and Cristina.
In the preliminary sketch for this painting, Frida drew a single dove holding a ribbon with the inscription from a popular song: "My Sweetie Doesn't Love Me Anymore", but in the final painting, the ribbon is held by two doves and bears the title of the painting: "A Few Small Nips". One dove is black, the other white, alluding perhaps to the light and dark sides of love. The text in the sketch continues with: "…because she gave herself to another bastard, but today I snatched her away, her hour has come."
When the painting was finished, Kahlo gave it one final touch to further project her emotions onto her work. In a fit of anger she took a knife and stabbed the frame several times.
In November of 1938, this painting was shown at Kahlo's first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. It was shown with the title: "Passionately in Love".