Black and grey dotwork back piece of a central lotus, ornate mandala motifs and geometric bands, placed across the upper and lower back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dotwork mandala back piece

Dotwork · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The large back piece centres on a lotus-like motif with layered petals, surrounded by mandala-style rosettes, ornamental scrolls and symmetrical geometric bands. The work is built from fine stippled dots and clean solid linework, with shading that builds depth across the petals and rosettes. It is rendered entirely in black ink and grey tones, and the design fills the frame symmetrically from shoulder to lower back.

Dotwork Geometric Botanical Back Lotus Mandala Floral Ornament Geometric pattern Rosette Scroll

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the ceiling in flat 14 of Hollins House came down on Tuesday, so Mr Okafor sent me up the scaffold with a tin of black ink and a box of fine needles he calls his rosary. I have spent three days stippling a lotus onto the plaster rose above a bath nobody has run since the Callaghans moved out. Every dot is a small decision. Mr Okafor says you can't rush dots, you can only wait for them.

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The whole block is going by spring, and the council wants the flats cleared before the men with hammers arrive. Most of the rooms still have their wallpaper, great blown roses peeling off in curls. Under flat 14's paper, though, someone had painted a mandala in gold leaf on the bathroom ceiling, and the gold had gone the colour of weak tea. I copied its rings onto the new plaster in pencil first, then ink, because Mr Okafor says geometry forgives nothing.

Yesterday a girl from the fourth floor came up to watch. She is nine and chews her biro. She asked why we bother making things nobody will see once the flats are gone. I told her the lotus opens out of the mud, which is more or less true, and that somebody had to dot it. She counted the petals out loud and got to two hundred and eleven before her mum shouted her down.

I finish the rosette tomorrow. Come up when you're back from Leeds and bring the good flask. I'll show you the outer ring, where the dots get so fine they stop being dots and start being light. Love, Dee.