Black and grey realism tattoo of orchids and handwritten script lettering across the upper arm and shoulder.

Black and grey orchids with script on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo covers the upper arm and shoulder, showing several orchid blooms with soft shading and highlights. Cursive script runs between the flowers, with the word Love the most prominent line, and parts of the lettering are partly legible. The shading is smooth and tonal, and the flowers fill the frame from top to bottom with the text woven through them.

Realism Botanical Lettering Upper arm Shoulder Orchid Flower Script Lettering Love Handwriting

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Mags,

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The orchids came in on Tuesday's goods train in a crate that smelled of wet cardboard, and I have been awake since four counting them. Forty-two phalaenopsis, their petals gone the colour of old pennies under the platform lamps, which Dennis says is the only shade the 5:52 ever leaves behind. I sold nine before the first commuter had his gloves off. Nobody buys orchids at a station kiosk unless they are ashamed of something or in love, and the second sort always ask me to write on the card.

Yesterday a lad in a navy anorak wanted a line copied out in my best hand, something about knowing you're in love because you can't get to sleep. He had it on his phone, but he said a phone was no use for a girl like hers. I wrote it three times on the back of a fare receipt before he was satisfied with the loops on the capitals. Then he stood there with the card going soft in his fist and didn't leave, so I asked him what the rest of it said. He didn't know. He only knew the bit about not sleeping.

I thought about that all afternoon, between the rush and the rain. Half of love is wanting someone to stop being a stranger on the 6:10, and the other half is pretending you don't care when they do.

I have kept one back, the last bloom in the crate, the one with the freckled lip like a cat's nose. It sits on the sill by the ticket window where the 6:10 pulls out, so if you ever come through Harrowgate on a Sunday, look up and wave. I'll know it's you.