Black and grey linework tattoo of a castle with a bow, roses and a heart on an upper arm, with a person's shoulder and neck partly visible.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Castle, bow and roses on an upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black linework tattoo of a fairytale castle with pointed towers sits at the centre, framed by a heart at the top, clouds and two roses. A large bow with dotted detail hangs along the bottom of the design, with ribbon tails extending downwards. The design is shown as outline work with little or no shading, in black ink on a pale arm against a light background.

Upper arm Castle Bow Rose Heart Cloud Ribbon

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Every evening the last train to Ashby Cross pulled out at nine, and every evening Ivy Marl stood on the platform with her lamp until its red tail had gone round the bend. The porters said she was counting carriages. Carriages were never hard to count at Ashby, where there were seldom more than two.

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One November a boy stepped off that train with a paper bag and no ticket. He had a drawing folded inside his coat: a castle with pointed towers, a great bow tied at its foot, and a rose on either side like a pair of watchful dogs. He unfolded it under her lamp. "My gran drew this for my mum," he said. "Mum said it was where the ribbon ends."

Ivy knew the drawing. She had done it herself at eleven, in pencil, on the back of an old fare sheet, and had handed it to a boy called Tom Dray who went off on the ten o'clock and never sent word. She took the boy into the waiting room, lit the gas ring under the kettle, and told him the castle was real, if he walked the line past the water tower and kept to the left of the cutting.

They set off at first light. Beyond the cutting the hedges gave way to a meadow thick with wild roses, and at its far edge stood a grey stone wall with towers no taller than chimneys, a brook looping under a little arched bridge. The boy stopped at the gate and looked back at the rails. Ivy untied the bow from her own coat and tied it to the gatepost. "Somebody has to keep the way open," she said, and walked back alone.