Traditional colour tattoo on a forearm showing a grey castle under an orange sun, a sealed envelope with a red wax seal, a winged golden ball, calla lilies and red flowers.

Castle, sealed envelope and winged ball on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A dark castle silhouette with spires sits under a large orange sun against a shaded grey sky, with a sealed envelope and red wax seal at the centre. Below it, a grey winged ball with orange and gold detailing sits beside red flowers, green leaves and calla lilies. Bold black outlines, solid fills and soft grey shading give a classic look, and the composition fills the forearm from elbow to wrist.

Traditional Forearm Castle Sun Envelope Wing Flower Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tobin,

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Your letter came up the hill yesterday with the wax still whole, so I broke it at the kitchen table the way you always did, thumbnail first, and read it twice before the bread went cold. The seal is the Hollin H, pressed by the same brass stamp that has closed every summons since the old king's time. I know you're frightened of the Flight Trials. Don't be. The gold ball doesn't care who holds it, only who keeps their eyes open.

Your father would have laughed at the state of the road. Mud to the axles, and the sun going down behind Carrowmere's towers like a coin dropped down a well. The lilies by the gate have come up early, white as teacups, and the wardens say the wind has sat in the east for a month. Mrs Ashdown asks after you every Sunday. She has started knitting a scarf in your house colours, rust and orange, though she will not admit whose idea that was.

When you were six you chased a ball of gold across the orchard and came back with grass stains and a ringing in your ears, swearing it had winked at you. I never told you I kept the feather it left caught in the apple tree. It is folded inside this envelope, under the seal. Carry it on the morning of the trials, and when the ball turns, follow it, not the crowd.

Write when the wind changes. Your loving mother, Ines.