Black and grey botanical tattoo of a dense bouquet of flowers and leaves covering the upper arm and shoulder, shown in three photographs.

Floral bouquet tattoo on upper arm and shoulder

Botanical · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The collage shows a large bouquet of flowers and leaves tattooed across the upper arm and shoulder, with blooms in varying sizes and some closed buds. The linework is fine and detailed, with shading built up through soft grey tones and areas of dotwork stippling. The image uses three views, a close crop of the arm, a wider shot of the shoulder with greenery behind, and a rear angle, all in black and grey.

Botanical Dotwork Upper arm Shoulder Flower Bouquet Leaves Bud Lily Floral

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The bandleader has ordered flowers for the Saturday dance at the Marine Palais, and you are the one who has to carry the armful up the back stairs before the doors open. Lilies first, Mr Hollis insisted, white ones gone faintly grey under the gas lamps, with daffodil spears to fill the gaps where the lilies would not stand.

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The hall smells of floor polish and last night's cigarettes. You work the bouquet into the tall brass urn beside the stage, pinching off bruised petals and tucking closed buds where the light will catch them. Ruth from the cloakroom says the buds are a waste, because nobody dances near a bud, but you leave them anyway. Open blooms look better when something is still waiting to open.

At half past nine a sailor off the Hartlepool boat asks you to dance. You say no, then no again, then yes on the third try, because the band has started something slow and the flowers have turned the room into a garden somebody forgot to lock. He treads on your foot twice. You let him.

Next morning the urn holds nothing but stalks. The lilies have shed their petals across the boards in a scatter like spilt sugar, and the buds you saved have opened overnight, all but one. Ruth sweeps the rest into the bin without looking at you. You keep that last closed bud, pressed flat inside the ledger, and you do not tell anyone it is still waiting.