Back of a woman in a blue halter dress, with a gold and silver metallic mandala temporary tattoo between the shoulder blades, a silver ornamental drop along the spine, and a white patterned band on

Gold mandala and spine drop on a back

Geometric · Back · Colour · Photo

A woman's bare back, seen from behind, with a gold and bronze mandala design between the shoulder blades. A fine silver dotted line runs down the spine to a silver and white ornamental drop motif, and a white patterned band sits on the upper arm. The design reads as a metallic temporary tattoo, with the blue halter strap crossing the composition.

Geometric Back Upper arm Mandala Spine Ornament Armband

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The mould came back from the foundry on Tuesday with a crack running through the third petal. Mr Okafor says it can be mended if we are quick, but I have stopped being sure he is right about anything. You will remember the mandala Hollis ordered for the Lisbon show, the one with the bronze inlay that catches the light like a struck match. I spent three weeks on the centre alone, pressing the rings out by hand because the machine will not hold the fine detail.

Let me tell you what I have been thinking about instead. The dotted line for the spine piece, the one that runs from the medallion down to the drop, is the part nobody notices and everybody asks about. Each dot is a single bead of silver, set with a pin no thicker than a hair. I counted them last night under the bench lamp because I could not sleep. Ninety-one. Ninety-one small stops between one thing and the next.

The drop itself I cast in three pieces and soldered at the joins, so the bottom curl can swing when the wearer moves. Hollis wanted it to look as though it had always been there, like a pattern that had grown on its own. I told him that was the one thing silver could never do, and he laughed as if I had made a joke.

Send me the rubbing of the old band when you get a minute. I want to see whether the spacing holds, and whether ninety-one is a number worth keeping.

Love, Maud