Black and grey hibiscus flowers within a solid black triangle on the forearm of a hand raised in a shaka gesture against the sea.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hibiscus flowers in a triangle on a forearm

Botanical · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A forearm is raised in front of a calm sea and pale sky, with a hand held in a shaka gesture. On the lower forearm sits a tattoo of hibiscus blooms with leaves, set inside a solid black triangular panel. The flowers are rendered in grey shading with fine linework, and the image is composed so the tattoo sits near the centre of the frame.

Botanical Blackwork Forearm Hibiscus Flower Leaves Triangle

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ada, the hibiscus came off the Mary Lowe on Tuesday, wrapped in wet sacking and a sailor's oilskin, and I have never seen a thing look so put out. Mr Fenwick says the root ball was the size of a loaf and the cook had kept it in the galley for a fortnight because the captain would not have it in the hold. Three leaves were left and one bloom, a bruised thing the colour of a ripe plum, and it hung its head the whole way up the hill in the cart.

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I have put it in the far bed by the stove, where the damp comes off the sea wall. You know how I fret over the glass. The sea is only a quarter mile off, and every evening the fog rolls in grey over the water and sits on the panes until the lamps are lit. I have been watering it at dusk with the rose can and talking to it like a fool, telling it about the harbour and the gulls and the price of coal.

This morning there were two new buds, folded tight as letters. You would not see them from the door, but if you put your face close to the soil it looks as though the plant is counting its breaths. I should like you to come up before the frost and see it. Bring the good scissors and the paper with the pressed fern, because I want to draw it properly before it decides to open.

Your loving sister, Win.