Black and grey fine line dandelion tattoo on a woman's upper back, with seeds drifting into small birds towards the shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dandelion seeds turning into birds on upper back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A dandelion clock sits low on the shoulder blade, with its stem curving down the back and its seeds breaking away and turning into small silhouetted birds that rise up towards the neck. The linework is fine and delicate, with soft grey shading giving the seed head some depth against the bare skin. The design is entirely black and grey, set against a plain, softly blurred background with the subject's dark red hair falling at the top of the frame.

Fine line Botanical Back Dandelion Seed Bird Swallow Flight Stem

Find an artist for this

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

Nadia had been trying to get the last dandelion clock off the balcony rail for ten minutes, and the wind kept taking it back. Fourteen floors up, Hollin Court swayed a little when the gusts came in off the car park, and the whole block seemed to hum with it. Her nan had always said you couldn't keep a dandelion, only lend it to the air.

Keep reading

The clock was from the scrubby patch behind the bins, where somebody had let the grass go to seed in May. Nadia had picked it on her way back from the bus stop, mostly because she was tired and it was the only thing on the walk that didn't need anything from her. Now it sat in her cupped hands, grey and round as a streetlamp globe, and she breathed out gently the way Nan had shown her.

Seeds lifted off, a dozen at first, then the rest in a rush. They caught the light from the flats opposite and, for a second, she thought they were nothing but dust. Then the nearest ones tipped their heads, dark and quick, and became swifts, wheeling past the lift shaft and up towards the satellite dishes as if the estate had planned it all along.

Nadia stayed out until her fingers went numb. Behind her, the kettle clicked off in the flat. She had a letter to write to the council about the lift, and a job interview on Monday she still hadn't rehearsed. She left the bare stem on the rail, a thin green line, and went in to put the kettle back on.