Colour realism tattoo of orange, red and yellow hibiscus flowers with a blue dragonfly and black swirls across the shoulder and upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hibiscus flowers and dragonfly on a shoulder

Realism · Shoulder · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows several hibiscus blooms in orange, red and yellow, with green leaves, a small red ladybird and a blue dragonfly near the top. Soft shading gives the petals volume, and fine black swirling lines trail around the flowers. The design wraps over the shoulder and down the upper arm, filling most of the frame against a dark top.

Realism Botanical Shoulder Upper arm Hibiscus Flower Dragonfly Ladybird Leaves Swirl

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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

The rain has been coming sideways across the market since seven, and by ten the hibiscus in the crate under your stall look like they're apologising for the weather. You tip the box, pick out the orange ones first because they sell, and leave the yellow ones where the awning drips.

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Mr Okafor from the fishmonger's shouts that tropical stuff is a waste of money in Halifax. You tell him the flowers came over on a lorry from a Dutch glasshouse, and he tells you that's the same thing. A dragonfly, blue as a gas flame, has got in under the tarpaulin and hangs over the till, stubborn as a bailiff. Nobody else will buy the dragonfly with you, so you leave it be.

By noon a girl with a pushchair has bought four orange blooms and a bunch of rosemary for a dinner she isn't sure she can afford. The yellow ones are still there. Each one will open for a single day and then fold itself into a brown paper crease, so you know exactly what they are worth by Monday, which is nothing. You slip one into the girl's carrier bag anyway and say it's from the stall.

When you finally pull down the awning, the car park is a mirror and the gutters run gold under the lamps. A ladybird walks along the edge of the crate, unhurried, and climbs onto your sleeve. You carry it to the wet cobbles, set it down among the petals, and leave the last bloom where it fell.