Black and grey arm sleeve with a rose on the shoulder and a script tattoo on the ribs, on a reclining woman in a black lace bralette.

Arm sleeve and side script tattoos

Botanical · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A reclining figure in a black lace bralette and grey skirt shows a tattoo sleeve on the upper arm and forearm, with a rose-like shape on the shoulder and dark geometric patterns below. A small script tattoo sits on the side of the ribs, and its wording is not legible. The image is in black and grey with soft natural light and a close, angled composition.

Botanical Lettering Shoulder Upper arm Forearm Ribs Rose Script Sleeve Geometric pattern Lace

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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 band at the Majestic Ballroom in Hull is still tuning when you find the note tucked under the cloakroom ticket, and you know the handwriting before you open it. Mrs Lorraine Pike has been sending you these since spring, always in green ink, always about the rose. This time she writes that the lattice is finished and the petals are waiting. You fold it into your cuff and go looking for Dennis, who owes you a shilling and a favour.

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Dennis is up a stepladder by the bandstand, replacing a bulb that has flickered since the war. He reads the note twice, grinning like a boy. He has been the hall's electrician for thirty years and still talks about the chandelier as if it were a living thing. You tell him the geometric border must run along the fire door as well, the way Mrs Pike wants it, and he says the council will have something to say about that. You tell him the council has never once danced.

Late, when the last waltz is called and the floor is buried in coats, you walk the length of the room with the score under your arm. The tune is one you know by heart, and you hum it past the cloakroom, where a woman is pinning a paper rose to her lapel. She looks up, glances at the margin of your sheet where you once wrote the words in a looping hand: keep time, keep faith, dance anyway. Behind you the bandleader counts them in.