Traditional style tattoo of green holly leaves and red berries wrapping around an ankle, outlined in bold black linework.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Holly and berry band on an ankle

Traditional · Ankle · Colour · Photo

A band of green holly leaves with red round berries on thin stems wraps around the ankle. The leaves have bold black outlines and flat green shading, and the berries are filled in solid red with small highlights. The colour is applied evenly across a horizontal composition that runs across the full width of the photo.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the frost has held three days now and the holly by the lychgate is so heavy with berries it's bowing the wall. I cut the long bough you asked for, though Mr Pryor saw me at it and said the Vicar would have my hide if he caught me. I told him the Vicar owes you a sprig for every shilling you've sent home this year.

Keep reading

I wound it the way Mother used to, a loop of green round the bundle, the thin stems tied with wool so the berries don't crush. Some of the leaves have gone spiky and dark at the edges, as if they've been out in weather as long as you have. I counted forty-one berries on the length I've wrapped for you, and I set the reddest ones at the top so they'd show when you open the parcel.

The carrier says the boat calls at Hull on the ninth, so this should reach you before the new year. Don't let the sailors pick the berries thinking they're cherries, or they'll come back sick. Lily has started her letters and wants you to know the cat has taken to sleeping in your boots.

I've pressed one leaf in the family Bible, between the pages for Mother's birth. When the bough is dry, keep a band of it on your wrist, and if the sea gets rough, count the points on it. Eleven points, eleven nights, and then you're home. Your loving sister, Ada.

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