Black and grey traditional flash design of a dagger piercing a rose, with the words More Than Conquerors curved around it and the reference RMNS 8:37 beside the hilt.

Dagger and rose flash with More Than Conquerors

Traditional · Black and grey · Flash

A bold black ink drawing of a dagger driven through the centre of a rose, with its blade extending downward below the flower. Solid black fills, heavy outlines and simple leaves make up the design, with the text More Than Conquerors arranged in an arc above and below it. The design sits centred on a plain white background, surrounded by pencils, matches, a notebook and beads.

Traditional Dagger Rose Leaves Scripture reference

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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 chapel board had been flaking since the spring rains, and Mr Hollis wanted it finished before the Whitsun fete, so on the Tuesday you climbed the ladder with a tin of black enamel under one arm and a pencil behind your ear. He had chosen the verse himself, RMNS 8:37, and Mrs Ogden at the vicarage wanted it picked out in gold leaf, which he called a waste of good money. You were to set the words in an arc above and below a rose, with a dagger driven through its middle.

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He had drawn the design on the back of a feed bill that morning, a blade slid through the heart of the flower, the point running down past the leaves like a plumb line. When you asked why a dagger, he struck a match on the sole of his boot, lit his pipe, and said a rose on its own only wilts, but a rose that has been run through is still standing. Then he shook out the match and dropped it in the tin with the others, where the burnt ends had begun to pile up like pencil shavings.

By four o'clock the rain had come back and the lettering had run at the foot of the arc. You scraped it down with a palette knife and started again, painting CONQUERORS backwards from the last letter so the curve would sit true. A boy from the mill brought up two cups of tea and stood at the bottom of the ladder asking if it was true the dagger was meant for the devil. You told him it was meant for the rose.

When the board was dry you signed the corner in the smallest letters you could manage. Hollis came out with his coat over his shoulders, looked at the rose for a long moment, and then took the stub of your pencil from behind your ear and put it in his own waistcoat pocket. The bell was ringing for evensong, and the leaves were still wet.