Black and grey dotwork and linework rose tattoo on the side of a person's head, with a thorned stem running down behind the ear.

Black and grey rose on the side of head

Botanical · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A large open rose with a smaller rosebud beside it sits on the side of the head, with leaves and a thorned stem curving down behind the ear towards the neck. The linework is fine and clean, and the petals and leaves are shaded with stippled dots. The image is in black and grey ink against a blurred dark background and a light-coloured head of hair.

Botanical Dotwork Other Rose Rosebud Leaves Stem Thorn

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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 Mr Harrowgate, the cutting you sent from the Wrexham glasshouse arrived on Tuesday wrapped in wet newspaper, and I confess I nearly threw it on the midden. Its stem was black with frost and the thorns looked like something a hedgehog would leave behind. But Mrs Pell, who keeps the potting shed at Corran House, took one look and declared it a Gloire, and said we must give it the south wall where the sun lingers longest in the afternoon.

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It has put out two buds already, one fat and open as a cupped hand, the other still tight and green at the tip like a fist that has not yet decided. I have sketched them on the back of this sheet, though my hand is poor. Mrs Pell insists the petals be shaded in small grey dots rather than drawn with a line, because a rose should be drawn the way the weather draws it. Leaves climb down the stem where the thorns are thickest, and I have counted nine.

Last night I stood at the wall with a lantern after the rain had stopped. A single petal had fallen from the open bloom onto the path, and beside it a snail was taking its time over the gravel. I thought of your letter, which said the rose would need three summers before it flowered properly, and I realised I had been watching for it the way one watches for a train that has already gone through the station.

Send word whether you want the rosebud kept or cut. Mrs Pell says cutting it will make the open one stronger, and I find I do not want to be the one holding the secateurs.