Black and grey botanical bouquet tattoo with flowers, leaves and a tied ribbon on a woman's upper back, above a black lace dress.

Botanical bouquet on upper back

Botanical · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo of a flower bouquet sits on the upper back, right of the spine, with blooms, buds and leaves rising from a tied ribbon at the base. The linework is fine and the shading is soft and detailed, giving the flowers a vintage engraved look. The photograph is black and white, with the woman's back, dark hair and lace dress framing the design against a pale background.

Botanical Back Flower Bouquet Ribbon Leaves Bud Back

Find an artist for this

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 Hester, The snow has shut the Rook and Lantern road since Tuesday, so I am stuck here with a smoking fire, a landlord who counts the candles, and the bundle of drawings Mr Tallis left in my keeping. You will laugh, but I have spent three evenings with the one of the bouquet, the tied one with the ribbon that runs down to nothing, the way a stem does when someone has cut it too short for the vase.

Keep reading

Tallis was an engraver in Norwich before his eyes went. He drew every bloom from life, columbine, peony, a bell-flower I could not name, and then he cut them again into copper, backwards, so the printers would get them right. He said a bouquet is only a lie told politely, because no garden ever produced those flowers all at once. He tied the ribbon last, on a Sunday, while the bells were going for evensong, and would not let me open the window until the knot was done.

Tonight the landlady's girl came up with broth and asked which flower was the sad one. I said none of them were; they are all open, only at different hours. She pointed at the low bud near the bottom and said that one would never reach the vase. I told her Tallis had shaded it darker than the rest, so it would look as though it were still making up its mind.

I am posting this when the road clears, with the bundle wrapped in oilcloth. Come to Norwich in April and bring your good scissors. The ribbon wants trimming, and I have not yet found the nerve.