Black and grey botanical tattoo of two crocus-style flowers on a stem, with dotwork shading, on the outer upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Crocus flowers on the upper arm

Botanical · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows two flower heads on slender stems, one bud above and one open bloom with petals and stamens, with a long leaf curling down the stem. The linework is bold and clean, and the petals are shaded with fine stippled dots that give them volume. The design is in black and grey ink against plain skin, set on a pale background with a black sleeveless top at the edge of the frame.

Botanical Dotwork Upper arm Flower Bud Stem Leaf

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The crocuses came up through the coal dust on the chapel wall this morning, three of them, purple at the throats and crumpled like wet paper where the frost had sat on them. Mrs Pryce says her mother put the bulbs in before the first strike, and nobody has touched them since, which is a small miracle in Gelli Row. I knelt in the muck with my good stockings on and counted the stamens, six to a flower, the way you taught me to count the props along the wall before a shift.

The men came up from the number three drift on Thursday with news about the roof. Dai Morgan's boy is at the infirmary and they say he will keep his legs, which is more than the Hughes family can say. I have sat by the range since, not knowing what to pray for except that you stay on the day shift until the new timbers are in.

Here is what I want you to know. Each morning I walk past those flowers on the way to the pump, and each morning they have opened a little further, as if they made up their minds in the dark and are not sorry for it. I have decided to be the same. I cut the last of my mother's ribbon and tied it round the bottom of the stems so they will not fall over in the wind coming off the tip.

Come home at the whistle, love, and bring your lamp. I will have the kettle on, and the crocuses will be watching the lane for you.

Your Nell