Black and grey realism drawing of a clock face, roses and a Timeless script banner, drawn as a sleeve tattoo design.

Clock and roses sleeve design

Realism · Black and grey · Flash

A pencil-style drawing of a sleeve design showing an antique clock face with Roman numerals, two shaded roses with leaves, and a ribbon banner reading Timeless. The shading uses soft grey tones and fine hatching to give the clock and flowers depth. The design is entirely black and grey on a pale paper background, with the elements arranged vertically to fill a sleeve-shaped composition.

Realism Clock Rose Leaves Banner Script Number

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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 clock above the nurses' station on Ward 7 ran four minutes fast, and nobody had ever admitted it. At three in the morning I stood beneath it with a tray of paper cups and read the Roman numerals the way you read a letter you already know by heart. Someone had painted over the twelve years ago, and the seven was a slightly different grey.

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Bed 14 belonged to Mr Pryce, who collected pocket watches and wanted me to wind his. He had a rose bed in Swansea that his late wife planted, and he kept telling me the roses would be out by the time he got home. I said I hoped so. I didn't say that his chart did not look like a man going home. Instead I wound his watch, held it to his ear, and he smiled as if the ticking had answered him.

Near dawn the corridor lights changed to the pale colour they use to pretend it is morning. I went back to the station and found a strip of tape stuck to the drawer with someone's joke written on it in marker: timeless, underlined twice. I laughed on my own, which is allowed at that hour. The clock said ten past five, which meant it was really five-oh-six.

At handover I told the day sister that bed 14 had asked for the time every half hour and I had told him each time, and that his watch had kept better time than any of us. She said it had been a good night. I said yes, and walked out past the clock, and for once I did not check it against my phone.