Grey shaded fine line tattoo of a butterfly, cherry blossom flowers, leaves and swirls on a forearm, with a faint pink wash on the wings and petals.

Butterfly and cherry blossom on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a butterfly with swirling antennae and wings, three cherry blossom flowers with a closed bud, several leaves and curling stems. The linework is fine and dark, with soft grey shading and a light pink-brown wash on the butterfly wing and petals. The design rises diagonally up the limb, with the butterfly placed at the upper right against plain skin.

Fine line Botanical Forearm Butterfly Cherry blossom Flower Leaf Swirl Bud Stem

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Marguerite Vale had three branches of blossom left and a van that smelled of wet cardboard when the rain started on Saturday morning. The bride wanted pale pink for the arch at Hollin Court, and Marguerite had promised pink, though the cherry trees in the orchard were already dropping their petals onto the gravel, which made the job easier and the timing worse.

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Her assistant, Dilys, was the one who found the butterfly. It sat on the lip of a galvanised bucket with its wings closed, then opened them to show a faded orange that looked borrowed from an older summer. "Leave it," Marguerite said, and for once Dilys didn't argue. They worked around it, wiring stems into the wooden arch while the thing shifted from bucket to ribbon to the bouquet on the trestle table and back again.

By the time the vicar cleared his throat, the sky had thinned to a bright white. The butterfly lifted off the ribbon, wandered up the arch past the last cluster of blossom, and settled on a twist of bare wire that had been meant to hold a bud. Nobody moved. The bride, who had complained about everything since March, laughed out loud and didn't stop until the first hymn.

Afterwards Marguerite kept one spray from the leftovers, bound its stems with grey florist's tape, and wedged it on the van dashboard for the drive home. Dilys asked why. "Somebody has to take the luck when it's offered," Marguerite said, and turned the wipers on, though the rain had already stopped.