Black and grey botanical tattoo of sunflowers, roses and blossom covering the shoulder and upper arm of a woman in a black bandeau top.

Black and grey floral sleeve on shoulder and upper arm

Botanical · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A large floral sleeve covers the shoulder and upper arm, with a sunflower head at the top, two roses in the middle and lower arm, and smaller blossoms, berries and leaves filling the gaps. The linework is fine and dark, with stippled and smooth shading that gives the petals depth. The design is entirely black and grey and wraps around the arm with a soft, natural flow.

Botanical Shoulder Upper arm Sunflower Rose Flower Blossom Berry Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marjorie,

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The Pemberton wedding is on Saturday, and Mrs Pemberton has asked for the sunflower to be drawn again, larger, because the first sketch looked like a dinner plate left out in the rain. I told her the sunflower is the hardest thing in any garden to make look humble. You must give it every seed, row upon row in the centre, then let the outer petals soften so the eye has somewhere to rest.

I spent the morning at the kitchen table with the graphite and the stipple pen, the one you were so cross about last month. The roses went quickly. Roses forgive you. She wants them packed close, one opening over the other, with a blackberry trail running underneath like a seam. I left the leaves until last, the dark serrated ones, and then went out to the hedge to check a bramble against my drawing. A ladybird was walking along the wall as though she had paid for the privilege, so I sat on the step and watched her until the light changed.

I have decided the Pembertons will get the drawing in pencil and the ink on top, not the other way round. Colour was never the point with these people. Mr Pemberton used to say a rose was only ever a rose once you knew how it smelled, and nobody can smell a print. Grey is honest about that. It shows where the shadows sit and leaves the rest to memory.

I'll post the finished sheet on Thursday with the bill. Keep the stipple pen away from the cat, and check the hedge for brambles before you cut it back. I'd hate to lose the ladybird's wall.

Yours in haste, Edie