Black and grey butterfly tattoo with outlined and shaded wings on a shoulder, with gold chains worn at the neck.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Butterfly tattoo on a shoulder

Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A butterfly with outlined, veined wings and soft grey shading sits on the upper shoulder, with its wings spread outward and a thin antenna visible. The work is entirely in black and grey ink, with darker outlines and lighter fill in the wings. The shallow-focus photo shows the tattoo against bare skin, with a shoji-style screen and gold necklaces in the background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Maud, the Bramley tree by the lower wall has dropped half its fruit already, and Father says the wasps will have the rest if we don't get the ladder under it by Saturday. I have been carrying the basket up and down the rows since dawn, mostly because it stops me thinking about the telegram that came with the milk.

Keep reading

The butterflies came back to the orchard this week, the big dark ones with the lacy wings that used to sit on the damsons when we were small. I counted eleven on the windfalls yesterday. One of them landed on my sleeve while I was working and stayed so long I forgot the basket was heavy. Its wings opened and closed slowly, like someone reading a page over and over before turning it. I did not brush it off. I thought you would have wanted me to keep still.

I have hung your green coat on the peg by the back door, where you left it. Nobody has moved it. When you come home on the leave train, come through the orchard gate rather than the road, so the dog hears you first and I have time to get the kettle on. The butterflies will be there, I promise you, and so will the last of the plums.

Your loving sister, Edie

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