Traditional hourglass tattoo with a red flower and black leaves above it and red flames at the sides, on a forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hourglass and red flower on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo shows an hourglass with grey shaded glass, stippled black sand in the upper bulb and a dark sand base, topped by a red flower and black leaves. Red flame shapes with black outlines sit either side of the hourglass. Bold black outlines and solid red and grey shading give it a classic look against plain skin.

Traditional Forearm Hourglass Flower Leaves Flame Sand

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The glass on the kitchen windowsill had been my grandfather's, and in the spring of 1956 it was the only thing in Harrow Vale that ran true. Every Sunday Dad turned it before the church bell so the choir knew when to stop. Mum said the poppies on the hill were early that year, red as the ones in Mrs Pickard's wall.

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The fire came on a Thursday, down past the chapel where the hay barns stood. Dad went with the men and the buckets, and I was left at the window with the glass, watching the orange come up over the ridge like something lit in a hearth. Mr Dunning from the post office came banging at the door to say the water cart would need twenty minutes to reach the far gate. Somebody had to time it. So I turned the glass and held my breath while the top bulb emptied grain by grain.

The sand ran faster than I'd reckoned. Halfway through, the wind swung round and I could see the flames licking the side of the barn as if they meant to come up the lane after us. I turned it again, then again, counting the chapel clock's strokes under my breath until the men shouted from the gate.

When Dad came home at dusk, his face black and his coat smelling of smoke, he didn't say a word. He took the glass off the sill, set it down on the table with its base to the wood, and let the sand fall through once more, slow as anything, while the house went quiet around us.