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

Botanical · Ankle · Mixed · Photo

A butterfly with outstretched wings sits above a cluster of five-petalled flowers on the lower leg, with a second flower trail continuing down over the ankle and onto the top of the foot. The flowers and butterfly are filled in aqua and teal, with soft grey shading along the wings, petals and stems that gives them depth. The design climbs diagonally from the calf to the foot, with the foot and leg filling most of the frame against a dark textured background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Maggie, the butterfly came back through the ticket hall again this morning. It's the big dark one with the pale teal bands on its wings, and it settled on the brass lamp above my kiosk as though it had paid for the seat. Dennis from the parcels office swears it's the same one that has been coming since the spring, but I told him butterflies don't keep appointments, and he told me I'd know a fine liar when I saw one.

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You'll laugh, but the platform looks different since you left. Dennis finished the planters along the bench end with the leftover aqua paint from the signal box, and the little five-petalled flowers have climbed the iron fence like they were always meant to. The 7.12 slows to nothing every morning and the passengers hardly glance up, yet I see the same faces watching the blooms come out one by one in the wet grey light. Mrs Cairns from the end cottage even asked for a cutting, which I took as the highest compliment this village has ever paid anything.

Your letter came on Tuesday, the one with the Lisbon postmark, asking me to keep the tin of old paint and not to let Dennis paint over the bench. I haven't. There's still a streak of teal on the platform edge where you left your umbrella to dry, and I've decided not to scrub it off.

You said you'd be back on the 4.40 Friday if the ferry held. I'll be at the window with my hair up and my good cardigan on. If you're on that train, look for the butterfly. It will likely be sitting on the sign, waiting for you to read it.

Love, Ellen

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