Black and grey Japanese style flash design of a coiling dragon with lily-like flowers and cloud motifs on a white background.

Black and grey dragon with flowers and clouds

Japanese · Black and grey · Flash

A coiling dragon with a horned head, whiskers and a frilled mane winds down the page, with its body shaded in black and light grey scales. Three stylised flowers sit along its length, and curled cloud motifs appear near the head and tail. The design is drawn in bold outlines on a plain white background, with the composition arranged in an S shape.

Japanese Dragon Flower Lily Cloud Scale Whiskers Horn

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The dragon had been stuck in the ceiling of the Palais de Lune since the flood of 1953, so Edie Marr had long stopped looking up when she sang. Tonight she was the last act before the lights went down, and the band was already packing away their trumpets. Her shoes pinched. Someone at the bar had dropped a tray of glasses and nobody had swept up the pieces yet.

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She had been told as a girl that the painted dragon on the plaster was the building's guardian, that it curled over the dance floor to keep the lovers honest. Her mother had said it watched for anyone who came in lying. Edie had never believed a word of it, until the manager, a man named Frank Dorland with a moustache like a wet brush, came down the stairs with a torch and a face the colour of putty and told her the roof had sprung a leak over the stage.

She climbed the ladder anyway. Up in the rafters the dragon's head hung over the gutter, its horns sharp with rust, its grey scales catching the torchlight. A lily had opened beside its jaw where the paint had blistered, and when she reached out to touch the petals a drip of cold water ran down her wrist. The dragon did not move. But the cloud curl at its tail had shifted, just slightly, toward the broken pane.

She pulled the tarpaulin tight and came down with wet hands and a laugh that surprised her. Frank asked what the joke was. Edie said she'd only been thanking the building for its manners, and went back out to sing.