Upper back of a woman in a black strap top, with a luminous pale green mandala tattoo over the shoulder blade, in a geometric style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Glowing mandala on upper back

Geometric · Back · Colour · Photo

A large circular mandala with radiating petals, concentric rings and a star-shaped centre is tattooed across the upper back, between the shoulder blades. The linework is fine and symmetrical and appears to glow pale green and yellow against darker skin. The dark background and soft lighting focus attention on the design, with the woman's shoulder and black strap framing it.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Win,

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Forewoman docked me a shilling this week for spoiling three dials, so I've been practising at the kitchen table with the blinds down, which Mother says is how you go blind. The paint is the same stuff we use at the works, zinc sulphide mixed with gum and water. It takes the light in the afternoon and gives it back all night. You point the brush between your lips, which I know is disgusting, but the girls all swear by it.

I've been working on a design of my own for the spare dial Mr Hollis let me keep. Rings first, very thin, eight of them, each a little finer than the last, then petals reaching out like the spokes of a wheel. I drew it with a compass and a pin and it took me four nights. The centre I left for last because it needs a steady hand: a five-pointed star no bigger than a shirt button.

When I finally finished, I turned out the gas and sat on the bed. There was nothing in the room but that pale green ring sitting on the washstand, every line of it showing, and the star in the middle brighter than all the rest. The mill men would say a thing like that was no use to anyone. I think it's the most useful thing I've ever made.

Tomorrow I'm taking it in to show Hollis. If he laughs, I'll keep it on the shelf. Don't tell Mother.

Love, Edie

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