Colour tattoo of a dreamcatcher with an orange butterfly and magenta feathers on a lower leg, in a realistic style with black linework.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dreamcatcher with butterfly on a calf

Realism · Calf · Mixed · Photo

A dreamcatcher with a fine web pattern, an orange and black monarch butterfly and teal beads sits on the calf. Three feathers hang from the base, shaded in grey and blending into magenta tips. Black linework and shading give the hoop and feathers depth against the pale skin, and the design is centred on the leg.

Realism Calf Dreamcatcher Butterfly Feather Bead Web

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The band had been playing the same foxtrot since eight, and Mrs Pryce kept sending the boys back to the bar with ringing ears. I stood by the cloakroom with my tray of dreamcatchers, their hoops bound in green wool and their feathers dyed the colour of cherry cordial in our kitchen sink. Nobody wanted to pay a shilling for string and a bird's feather, my mother said, and she was right, so I kept walking the floor with the tray held high like a waiter.

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A monarch came in through the side doors, drawn by the lamps, and went straight for the stage. It circled the bass drum twice, then settled on the biggest catcher, right in the middle of the web I had spent three nights knotting. Its wings opened and closed slowly, like someone reading a letter they didn't want to finish. A sailor by the punch bowl called it a sign, and his mate laughed, and the trumpet player stopped mid-bar to stare at it.

I didn't want it caught. The web was meant for bad dreams, Gran said, not for things that had flown a long way and only wanted a rest. So I carried the tray out past the coat hooks to the car park, where the sky had gone violet over the harbour, and tipped the hoop until the butterfly lifted off, orange as a struck match, and went over the wall toward the boats.

When I went back in, the sailor had bought the plainest catcher for two shillings and left the coins stacked neatly on the tray. I kept the one with three magenta feathers for myself and hung it above my bed, where the bad dreams could slip through the holes and the good ones would have to stay caught.