Black and grey traditional tattoo of a crescent moon with a woman's face, roses and a banner reading LA LUNA on a person's upper back.

Crescent moon with face and roses on back

Traditional · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A crescent moon holds a woman's profile in its curve, with roses and buds on the lower left and a scroll banner reading LA LUNA across the top. The solid black shading contrasts with a dotted outline along the moon's edge and light stippling in the background. The tattoo fills the centre of the frame against plain, pale skin.

Traditional Dotwork Back Moon Crescent moon Face Woman Rose Flower Banner Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The last of the lettering went on at dusk, when the light was low enough to hide how thin the paint had become. Mabel Ogden leaned off the step ladder with a brush no thicker than a hair, black enamel on the scroll, and wrote LA LUNA in capitals she had learned from her father's old sign-painting manuals. Harold Quill stood below with his hat in his hands, the way he held it at funerals and at the bank.

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The moon had flown above the sawdust for eleven summers. Ivy Sallow sat in its curve in a silver dress that had once been white, her profile lit from a single lamp, while the crane swung her out over the crowd. Mabel had painted the roses on the lower horn, a cluster with dark stems and two buds the size of thumbnails, because the first moons had been plainer and the children complained. Nobody ever complained about the roses.

Harold said the bank wanted the wagon by the first of the month, the crane by Christmas, and the moon sold for scrap or to a museum in Hull, whichever paid first. Mabel dipped the brush again and said nothing. When the last stroke of the banner was dry she climbed down, wiped her fingers on her overalls, and looked up at the painted face turned towards the empty field, its eyes half closed as if it had heard the news and was too polite to mention it. Ivy came out to see, laughed, and said the moon had never once minded being looked at from below.