Three forearms show cross-stitch style tattoos: a pink and green rose on the left, a grey Stormtrooper helmet in the middle and a pink flamingo with laurel on the right, with small line tattoos at the

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Cross-stitch style tattoos on three forearms

Forearm · Mixed · Photo

Three forearms are shown side by side, each with a tattoo drawn as a grid of small cross-stitch squares. The left arm has a pink rose with green leaves, the centre arm has a grey shaded Stormtrooper helmet, and the right arm has a pink flamingo above a green laurel wreath. Small fine line tattoos sit near the wrists, including a thin band with a tiny script letter on the left, and the image is mostly colour with grey shading on the helmet.

Forearm Rose Flower Stormtrooper Helmet Flamingo Laurel Bracelet Script letter

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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

Dear Marion, the pattern book came back from the library with coffee rings on the cover, so I have copied the flamingo out by hand on squared paper, twelve stitches to the inch, the way Mum taught us before the shops had printed transfers. Your boys are coming on Saturday and Derek says they want the helmet pattern the lad drew on the back of a gas bill. I told him a helmet is only a grey oval with two black slots, which is easy enough, but grey takes three skeins and a patience I haven't got.

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The rose I did first, for the Pennington girl's christening cloth. She wanted it pink even though the book said cream, and when Mrs Pennington saw it she cried, which I didn't expect. Mum always said you couldn't stitch a rose without thinking of someone particular. I thought she was being sentimental until my hands started doing it without me.

The laurel gave me trouble. Every wreath I drew looked like a crown for a bad king. In the end I walked down to the harbour wall where the old chandler's shop used to be and counted the leaves on the ivy that still grows through the railings. There were forty-one on one branch. I laid them out in green wool, one at a time, until they looked like they meant it.

The flamingo is for you, not the boys. I stitched it standing on one leg, the way Mum's did in the sampler she left behind, and I have left the last row unfinished so you can pick the colour. Send me your address so I can post the frame before the damp gets into the linen. Love, Mum.