Black fine line fern sprig tattoo curving across the upper arm of a woman seated on a bed, seen from behind.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Fern sprig on an upper arm

Botanical · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black fern or leafy sprig tattoo curves from the upper arm down towards the elbow, with fine, tapered linework on each frond. The tattoo is in black ink only, and the bare skin around it is pale and softly lit against white bedding. The subject is shown from behind, with the upper arm and shoulder in the foreground and the rest of the figure blurred in the background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Hester,

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The glass case came off the carrier's cart on Thursday with one corner cracked, but the fern inside had come through the sea crossing better than either of us would have. Mr Penhallow swears it is a maidenhair, though I have my doubts, since the fronds turn down at the tip like a shepherd's crook rather than fanning out as the book promised. I have set it on the north sill where the damp can reach it, and I water it every morning before the kettle.

You will laugh at me, but I have been sitting with it for an hour each evening, drawing it in the back of the ledger. The sprig I sketched is the one that bends the furthest, arching from the lowest stem up and round until its last pinnae almost touch the first. Each leaflet narrows to a point finer than a sewing needle. I tried to get the blackness right, pressing the nib so the ink pooled along the midrib, and I have only succeeded twice.

Mother's letter says Father wants the case moved to the parlour for the visitors. I have written back that the fern will not survive a grate and a coal scuttle, and that if he insists, he may explain to the Society why its prize specimen withered. I suspect I have made an enemy.

The ferns in Cornwall grow nowhere near as tall as the ones in your engraving, but this one has begun a new frond since Tuesday. It uncoils slowly, a fist opening by degrees, and I sit with my tea going cold to watch it. I should like you to see it before it outgrows the glass.

Your loving brother, Edwin

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