Black and grey shaded butterfly tattoo on the upper back, with a handwritten quote in black script reading I'm a walking travesty but I'm smiling at everything.

Butterfly and handwritten quote on upper back

Lettering · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A shaded black and grey butterfly with one wing facing left sits on the upper back, with the wing edges outlined and the interior filled with grey tonal shading. A handwritten line of black script runs diagonally from the butterfly's body, forming the quote as part of the design. The photograph is taken close up in soft focus with the skin tone and tattoo lines clearly visible.

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

The potting shed still smells of creosote and the sweet rot of old bulbs when you finally open it, three weeks after the funeral. Your aunt Ivy has left everything where she last put it: trowels standing in a jam jar, a row of seed packets pegged to a length of string like washing. You take them down one at a time. Most are sweet peas gone to dust, and a runner bean whose name has faded to a blue smudge.

Keep reading

The last packet is different. The front is blank, and on the back, in her looping pencil, someone has written: I'm a walking travesty, but I'm smiling at everything. You read it twice, then laugh out loud, alone, because it is exactly what she would say when the frost took the dahlias and she still went out in her slippers to count the damage.

You carry the packet out to the buddleia by the back wall. The sun is low and the bush is loud with bees, and a single swallowtail is working the purple heads, one edge of its wing torn ragged, opening and closing as if it has all the time in the world. The crooked way it holds itself reminds you of her, marching the rows with a fork over one shoulder.

You tuck the packet into your coat pocket instead of the bin. Next spring you will sow whatever it was meant to hold and see what comes up. The butterfly lifts off and drops over the wall, and you stand there smiling at nothing in particular, which is the most she ever asked of anyone.

More like this

Black and grey butterfly tattoo on a shoulder, with the words I'm a walking travesty but I'm smiling at every thing forming the trailing wing.
Butterfly with quote on the shoulder
Black and grey butterfly tattoo on the upper arm beside a cursive script quote across the back, shown from behind.
Butterfly and script quote on arm and back
Black and grey traditional swallow tattoo on the upper back, with a banner reading it's just a spark but its enough beside a starburst.
Swallow with spark quote on upper back
Black and grey fine line lettering tattoo of a three-line quote in cursive script across the inner wrist.
Script quote on the inner wrist
Black ink tattoo on a thigh with script lettering reading Your Wings Were Ready But My Heart Was Not, a flock of birds and a feather.
Quote, birds and feather on a thigh
Black and grey fine line tattoo of a balloon on the upper back near the shoulder blade, with the script words Sometimes you need to let things go trailing from its string.
Balloon and quote on the upper back
Black and grey feather quill with shaded plumes above the script words Who will tell the story of your life, tattooed on the side of the ribs.
Feather quill and script quote on the ribs
Black fine line tattoo of a dandelion dissolving into flying birds, with script lettering running along the upper shoulder and chest.
Dandelion seeds becoming birds with script on shoulder
Fine black and grey script reading and they lived happily ever after, with faded butterflies and swirls, on the back of a woman's neck.
Happily ever after script on the neck
Black and white photo of a woman's upper back with a black script lettering tattoo of a lyric quote across the shoulder blades.
Script lyric quote across upper back
Black and grey lettering tattoo of a shaded balloon and the words Sometimes you need to let things go, running diagonally across a person's upper back.
Balloon and quote on upper back
Fine line blue script reading in a world of my own with a daisy outline on the inner forearm, drawn in a lettering and botanical style.
Script quote and daisy on a forearm

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