Close view of a fine line botanical tattoo of a leafy sprig on the forearm of a person whose arm is extended against a pale grey background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Fine line foliage sprig on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A delicate sprig of leaves or fern-like foliage is drawn in thin black linework on the inner forearm, with the branch curving upwards and outwards. The shading is light and sparing, with a few darker strokes giving depth to the leaves. The arm is extended from a dark blue knit sleeve against a plain, pale grey background, which keeps the focus on the tattoo.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dearest Cassia, the pigeon from Misenum reached me on the Ides with your letter, and I have read it four times, once aloud to the mules. You ask again why I stayed at the spring above Baiae after the harvest was in. Because the maidenhair grows only where the rock weeps, and old Dexippus, who taught me the names of plants, would have wept himself to see it left unpicked. I have spent three weeks drawing it instead of gathering it, which he would call idle, but his hand shook too badly to hold a pen by the end.

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Enclosed is a sprig I cut from the lowest ledge, where the leaves fan out like the ribs of a broken parasol. Wrap it in wet linen before you open the reed case, or it will crumble in your hands as it did in mine. Press it between two roof tiles, not between books, because the books will sweat it black. You will know the branch is right when it curls upward and outward, reaching for the light the way you always reached for the top of the fig tree at home, scraping your knees on the bark.

Tell Mother the shade over the well is cool and the goats have stopped bleating at the gate. I am coming home at the turn of the season with ink on my fingers and far too much to say about roots.

Set the sprig in a dish of water on the sill tonight. By morning the fronds will have opened, pale green against the plaster, and you will see what I meant about the rock weeping.

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