Black botanical tattoo of a branching tree with roots running down the centre of a person's back, from the nape of the neck.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Branching tree tattoo down the spine

Botanical · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A person with dark curly hair, seen from behind, holds their head with both hands against a deep red background. A black tattoo of a branching tree runs from the nape of the neck down the centre of the back, with fine, tapering branches spreading outwards across the upper back. The solid black ink and clean linework stand out sharply against the warm skin tones.

Botanical Fine line Back Tree Branches Root Spine Hair

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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

We lost the alder at Hollin Lock in the February flood, and I still haven't got used to the gap it left on the towpath. Dad tied the Perseverance to its trunk every winter for thirty years, and the rope always sat in the same notch, worn smooth as a banister. This morning I stood where the roots had been and found them still gripping the bank, black and bunched like knuckles, the whole thing heaved out of the mud in one piece.

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The lock-keeper, Ferris, came down with a saw and a face like a closed sluice. He wanted it cut for firewood. I told him the roots would hold the bank for another decade, and he called me sentimental, which is true, but the roots are also right. You can read the river's history in them: every branch that ever reached out over the water to drink.

So I took a bucket of grey clay and packed the roots back into the cut with my bare hands, the way you'd settle a sleeping child, and I laid the rope over the top. The wood shone wet where the bark had split. Ferris watched from the gate with his arms folded and said nothing, which from him is practically a blessing.

When the boat came through at dusk, the old notch in the rope caught the lamplight, and I swear the stump above it had already put out pale green shoots. Write back and tell me if the willow at Stanwell is still standing. I'll tie up under it on Thursday, and you can wave at me from the bank.