Black and grey tattoos on a forearm: a dress form outline near the elbow and a larger figure surrounded by roses on the lower arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dress form and figure tattoos on a forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A forearm is shown with a fine outline of a dress form above the elbow and a larger tattoo of a standing figure framed by rose blooms and foliage below it. The work uses black and grey linework and shading, with the figure's body and the flowers built up in tonal grey. The arm fills the centre of the frame against a striped black and white skirt and a soft, blurred outdoor background.

Forearm Figure Rose Flower Foliage

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The form came off the lorry at Dover with a split in its neck and a label that said someone else's name, so I have been calling her Mrs Abara until I can think of something better. Mr Okonedo at the crossing wanted to know what was in the crate. I told him a wardrobe's worth of pins and a mannequin with no head, which was not a lie, and he waved me through without lifting the lid.

She is not as tall as she should be. The shoulders are too narrow for the bodice patterns Aunt Vi left us, so I have been cutting the silk on the bias and letting the roses do the work the bones would have done. Mum always said a good dress hides its seams under a bit of nonsense, and I have stitched thirty small blooms along the hem, each one a different shade of grey, because the cloth only came in grey and I was too stubborn to dye it.

Last Thursday a girl from the wedding party stood where Mrs Abara stands now and asked whether a dress still looks like a dress without anyone inside it. I said that was the whole trick. A form holds the shape of what's missing, and the rest is up to whoever wears it.

I am sending you the first photograph of the finished hem. Tell me if the foliage on the left is too heavy. I cannot judge it any more; I have been looking at it so long the lines have gone soft.

Love, Hannah