Traditional colour tattoo of orange butterflies and red flowers with green leaves running down the lower leg and onto the ankle.

Butterflies and flowers on an ankle

Traditional · Ankle · Colour · Photo

Three traditional-style tattoos run down the lower leg and onto the ankle: an upper butterfly with a flower, a middle butterfly partly behind a flower cluster, and a small flower at the ankle bone. The linework is bold and dark, with orange, red and green ink and grey shading on the butterfly wings. The photo is taken straight on, with the ankle and foot filling the lower half of the frame against a pale green wall.

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

In the hill country of Veldmoor, where the orchards ran down to the salt marsh, the old queen had three gardens and a single rule: nothing that bloomed could be picked without asking. Her steward, a thin man named Oswin Parrow, took the rule more seriously than anyone. When the Lady Ysolde came to court with a basket of red mallow and no permission, he had her brought before the throne before the petals had wilted.

Keep reading

The queen listened, turned a ring on her finger, and asked where the flowers had come from. Ysolde said the mallow grew wild along the sheep track below the mill, and that the butterflies there were so thick in June they clung to the fence posts like moths to a lamp. She had brought the flowers, she said, because the children of the mill had none to take to their dead. The queen was quiet a long while. Then she sent Oswin down to the sheep track to count the blossoms, and he came back at dusk having counted nothing but wings.

The queen had the mallow planted in the third garden, beside the gate, and gave the mill children the key. Ysolde kept her basket. On the first morning of autumn the steward found a sprig of red flower and a single orange wing pressed into the wax of his seal, and under it, in careful script, the words: you may ask now.

More like this

Teal and grey butterfly with flowers and vines wrapping from the calf down over the ankle in a botanical style.
Butterfly and flowers on ankle and calf
Realistic coloured tattoo of two pink lilies, a blue butterfly and black and green swirling vines on the upper back.
Pink lilies and blue butterfly on the back
Colour botanical tattoo of pink lilies and black vine swirls running up the outer ankle and onto the top of a foot.
Pink lilies and vine on an ankle
Colour tattoo of five butterflies in pink, grey, red and purple with black outlines, following a purple swirling line up an upper arm.
Butterflies spiralling up an upper arm
Realistic colour tattoo of pink roses and orange monarch butterflies covering a woman's shoulder and upper arm.
Pink roses and monarch butterflies on an upper arm
Colour monarch butterfly with soft shading and grey swirling vine lines on the ankle, in a fine line and realism style.
Monarch butterfly and vine on ankle
Black and grey butterfly, lily and swirling vine tattoo across the top of a foot, shaded in a realistic style.
Butterfly and lily on the top of a foot
Red lily tattoo with black linework and swirling vine on the inner ankle and top of a foot, shaded in soft red tones.
Red lily with vine on an ankle
Colour traditional tattoo of a peacock with red flowers and leaves above a large feathered tail, across a person's upper back.
Peacock and red flowers across a back
Colour tattoo of a vine with blue, purple and red flowers, a bud and green leaves on the upper arm, in a botanical style.
Flower vine on upper arm
Colour tattoo of three pink lilies on black swirling vines running down a calf towards the ankle.
Lily and vine tattoo down a calf
Black and grey realism tattoo of a butterfly with open wings above a shaded rose on the forearm.
Butterfly and rose on a forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.