Black and grey realism roses with ornate cursive script and leaves tattooed along the side of the ribs.

Black and grey roses and script on ribs

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A large tattoo runs down the side of a torso, combining shaded roses with leaves and a tall ornate cursive script with flourishing scrollwork. The roses are rendered with soft grey shading and fine detail, while the lettering uses bold black outlines. The ink is entirely black and grey, and the composition wraps around the curve of the ribs.

Realism Lettering Ribs Rose Leaves Script Lettering Scrollwork Flourish

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The rose seller at Halcombe Junction has sold out of reds again, so I've taken to buying the grey ones from the back of the signal box, where Mr Pryce keeps a bucket of cuttings he insists are dead but aren't. They look like old photographs of roses, which I suppose is what they are: the shadows of petals laid against shadows. I put one in the window of the ticket hall, under the clock, and three people asked whether the flower was real.

The name board went up on Monday. The painter came from Shrewsbury with a tin of black and a roll of tracing paper, and he worked the letters tall and looping, with curls at the feet like the tails of a kite. Mr Pryce stood at the bottom of the ladder and said the swirls were showing off. The painter said a station should have something to look at while it waits. I thought that was the nicest thing anyone has said about this place in years.

You asked in your last letter whether I still meet the 7.40 on Thursdays. I do. The train comes in with its lamps lit and the same man gets off, carrying a violin case he never opens, and he always checks the board before he checks the time. I haven't told him that I'm the one who chose the flowers for the lettering.

Come home at Easter. The roses will be out on the real bushes by then, and I'll keep the grey one from the window for you, pressed in the back of the timetable.

Yours, Nell