Black linework tattoo on the inner upper arm, with a geometric parallelogram framed by flowers, leaves and acorns in a botanical style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Geometric botanical piece on upper arm

Botanical · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A large tattoo on the inner upper arm shows a tall parallelogram left as open skin, surrounded by botanical subjects including daisy-like flowers, broad leaves and acorns. The work is done in black linework with hatched and stippled shading on the leaves and petals, and the lines are fairly bold rather than delicate. The design uses only black ink, sits on a plain pale background and fills the frame diagonally.

Botanical Geometric Upper arm Flower Daisy Leaf Acorn Geometric shape Botanical

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit down, sit down, and mind the guy ropes. Now, you want the tale of the Slant Booth, and I'll give it you straight, the way my nan gave it to me under this very canvas.

Keep reading

Years back, when the fair still came over the Downs in a line of painted wagons, there was a sign-painter called Ada Pellow who travelled with us. She could make a daisy look like it had just opened its eyes. The showman gave her one job each season: paint the great board for the Slant Booth, and leave a square of plain wood in the middle, where the customers would look through and see themselves as they might be.

She never could leave it plain. Every winter she painted the board anew, and every spring it came back with flowers climbing up the edges, oak leaves stuck to the corners, acorns pushing out of the grain. The showman swore it was the damp. Ada only smiled and said the wood knew what it wanted.

The last season, the fair pitched in a valley with one old oak, and Ada sat under it one October evening with a brush and a pot of black. She drew the window slanting, the way light slants through a gap in the hedge at dusk, and she left the middle empty. When the lamps lit, a child walked up to the board, put her hand in the empty space, and came out holding a single acorn, though nothing had been there before.

That is why, when you pass the Slant Booth, you mustn't go looking for yourself in the gap. Look for Ada. She's the one leaving things for the next child to find.