Black fine line tattoo of dandelion seeds drifting across the upper chest and collarbone, with a larger dandelion clock on the right.

Dandelion seeds across a collarbone

Fine line · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a scatter of dandelion seed heads with thin, wispy stems drifting across the collarbone, plus a larger dandelion clock on the right side of the chest. The linework is delicate and even, with fine dotted tips on the seed heads and some light shading in the larger clock. The ink is black on warm skin, and a strand of dark hair crosses the upper left of the frame.

Fine line Botanical Chest Dandelion Seed Flower Stem

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The school field had been mown for the reunion, though nobody had told the dandelions. Dorothy Greave stood by the old tuck shop hatch with a paper plate of sausage rolls and watched Keith Tulley crouch over a clock in the long grass, turning it slowly between finger and thumb the way he had at eight, when Mr Osei swore a single breath would tell you the time of day.

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Keith held it up to her like a prize. 'Go on,' he said. 'Forty-odd years and nobody's asked me what time it is.' His hair had gone the colour of dishwater and his reading glasses hung on a cord, but his grin had not moved an inch. Dorothy took the stalk between her fingers. Behind them the old pavilion leaned in the breeze, its windows boarded, the sign for the sports club still faded above the door.

She remembered the wish now, which surprised her. She had wanted Mr Osei's class picked for the county trip, and they had not been picked, and she had cried into her lunchbox at the far end of the field where nobody could see. She blew. The seeds lifted off in a loose, glittering knot, caught the wind over the car park and went skittering toward the bike sheds, a few landing on the bonnet of a hatchback with a wedding ribbon still tied to its wing mirror.

Keith counted with her under his breath, the way they had as children. Seven, and somewhere beyond the gate a bell seemed to ring, though it was only a car alarm. 'Seven,' Dorothy said. 'Time to go in.' He laughed and offered her his arm, and she took it, leaving the rest of the clock standing bare and white in the grass.