Colour tattoo of a honeycomb mandala with purple petals and two bees, placed on the upper back near the shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Honeycomb mandala with bees on a shoulder

Geometric · Back · Colour · Photo

A colour tattoo of a central honeycomb cluster surrounded by purple lotus-like petals, with dotted yellow accents and honey drips below. Two realistic bees with striped abdomens and shaded wings sit at the upper left and right edges of the design. Soft purple, gold and orange shading sits over black outlines on healed-looking skin, with the composition centred on the design.

Geometric Back Honeycomb Bee Mandala Petal Flower

Find an artist for this

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

Dear Win,

Keep reading

You will not believe what Mr Pollard did at the Harvest Dance. He came across the hall with a jar of clover honey under one arm, as if he were carrying the cup at a christening, and set it on the piano lid beside Mrs Hale's sheet music. Then he asked me for the lancers. I said I had promised the next three to the Ferris boys, and he said that was no matter, the bees would keep me company until they were free.

We danced anyway, twice round the room under the paper lanterns, and every time we passed the piano the hum rose up off that jar as though the whole hive had come to see. By the third reel Mother was watching us from the trestle table with her mouth pressed flat, and Dad was counting the cider barrels to pretend he hadn't noticed.

Here is the strange part. When we stepped out into the yard at half eleven, there were bees sitting on my wrist, in a neat row along the cuff of my glove, as if they had been sent to fetch me home. Mr Pollard brushed them off with his hat and said they knew a good partner when they saw one. I do not think he meant the dancing.

I have kept the jar on my windowsill. The honey has gone the colour of an old penny, and last night I found a single comb inside it, six sides perfect, waiting for someone to open it.

Yours in haste, Nell