Black and grey back tattoo in traditional style, with Latin script, stars, dice, cherries, strawberries and a skull in a flower, spread across the upper and lower back.

Back piece of dice, cherries and Latin script

Traditional · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A large back tattoo across the upper and lower back, combining Latin script with stars, dice, a spade, an eight ball, cherries, strawberries and a skull set in a flower. The linework is bold and clean, with soft grey shading that gives the dice, fruit and stars some depth. The motifs flow diagonally from the shoulder blade to the hip, framed by the bare skin of the back.

Traditional Lettering Back Script Star Dice Spade Cherry Strawberry Skull Flower

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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

Dear Nell, the cherries came in early this year, so Dad had the lads strip the top rows before the wasps got the lot, and we've been boiling stones for jam until the kitchen smells like a sweetshop. You'll laugh, but I've been running the hook-a-duck and the dice tent at the Hollowmere fete again, under the same striped canvas Grandad painted with the stars and those two Latin tags. Mum says the old motto ought to come down, love and do what you will, as if the vicar would stand for it.

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Saturday the rain came over the ridge at four and half the village ran for the marquee. Stan Hollis, who has never once paid for a ticket, rolled a double six on the big wooden board and demanded his money back. I told him the house doesn't refund men who've spent the afternoon eyeing the strawberry jar. He tipped his cap, bought a paper bag of cherries instead, and sat on a hay bale spitting stones into the grass as if it were the only sensible thing anyone had done all day.

The eight ball is still chipped where Grandad dropped it down the well in 1961. I keep it on the shelf above the till because it reminds me the odds were never kind to anyone, least of all him. Last night, after the lamps went out, I sat on the step with a cup of tea and a single red die and rolled it across the cobbles until the light gave up. Six, then five, then four. Ad astra, I thought, though I said nothing aloud in case the orchard heard.

Come down at the weekend. Bring the good tin of dice, and we'll see whether the stars are still on our side.