Black ink fine line drawing of ginkgo leaves on a curving branch, shown as a tattoo design on plain off-white paper.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ginkgo leaves on a branch, line drawing

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

The drawing shows a curving branch with several ginkgo leaves, each fan-shaped with radiating veins drawn as separate lines. The linework is fine and even, with the veins and leaf edges defined by thin black strokes and no shading or fill. It is rendered in black ink on a pale, textured background, with the composition sweeping from the upper left down to the lower right.

Fine line Botanical Leaf Branch Line drawing

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marguerite,

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You will think I have lost my mind, but the ginkgo outside the Pearson Street flats dropped every leaf on Tuesday, all at once, between the lamp going on and the milk float coming round. I was at the window with the kettle. Mrs Oyelaran from number nine said it sounded like rain that had decided to go upwards. By morning the pavement was gold and the branches were bare, and the leaves lay face up with their fans open, every vein showing like the ribs of an umbrella that has been left out.

I have been collecting them since. Thirty-one so far, in the shoebox you gave me for Christmas, which I have decided to use for something other than shoes. I lay each one on the drawing paper and trace the veins with the fine nib, one stroke per rib, because if I go round the edge first the lines come out stiff. Mr Haddow, who sells papers on the corner, says ginkgos are older than the dinosaurs and do not argue with anyone. I told him I would like to be that sort of tree. He said I was already halfway there, being so stubborn about the nib.

I did not tell you about Dad's letter. It came on Monday, the one with the Lisbon postmark, saying he would not be coming back for the spring. I read it on the bottom step and put it in my coat, and I have been carrying it around like a leaf that will not press flat. This morning I took the shoebox out, chose the best one, and drew it with the branch still attached, curving down towards the bottom of the page, the way it looked from the window.

I am sending you the drawing. Keep it somewhere dry. The tree will come back in May, Mr Haddow says, though it will take its time about it.

Love, Nell