Black and grey butterfly tattoo with soft shading and a drop shadow on a woman's shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Butterfly tattoo on a shoulder blade

Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A close view of a woman's bare shoulder and upper back, with a butterfly tattoo sitting just below the shoulder point. The butterfly has dark outlines, grey shading across its wings and a soft cast shadow beneath it, giving a slightly three-dimensional effect. Only the lower face and chin are visible at the top left, and the dark background keeps the focus on the tattoo.

Shoulder Butterfly Shoulder Shadow

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nan,

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The butterfly has gone, and I think I'm the one who let it out. It came aboard at Lisbon in a crate of lemons, a grey thing with dark edges to its wings, and it spent three days going round the galley as if it paid the rent. Dimitri wanted it swatted. I wanted to see where it would land, so I kept the hatch propped and left the lemons where they were.

It favoured the lamp over the stove. When the ship rolled, the lamp swung, and the butterfly's shadow slid across the tiled bulkhead, a dark copy of it, a little behind, the way a lad follows you down the quay. I'd stop chopping onions to watch. Nobody else on the watch cared, so I took the back of the stores ledger and tried to draw it, the grey pressed hard at the wing edges and the shadow under it shaped like it was falling off the page.

Captain Hallam saw the sheet on Thursday and asked for it. He said it was the first thing he'd seen on this ship in eleven years that looked like it might still be flying. He pinned it above the chart table, next to the tide tables. I don't think he noticed I'd drawn the shadow darker than the wing on purpose.

This morning the hatch was open for the fresh water, and the butterfly went out past the rail toward the Rock. I stood at the bulkhead a while after, looking at the place where its shadow had been. The lamp was still swinging. There was nothing on the wall, but I kept looking anyway.

Love, Tom