Traditional hourglass tattoo with a red flower, black leaves and wings, shaded in grey and red, on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hourglass with red flower on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A traditional hourglass sits at the centre, topped by a red flower and black leaves and flanked by red and black wings. Bold black outlines define the forms, while the glass and base are shaded in grey with stippled sand. Red and grey are set against black, and the tattoo is shown in close view on the forearm.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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I am writing this at the kitchen table because the sitting room is full of Mam's ribbon and the cake is under a tea towel on the dresser, and if I stay in there I will only fuss. Dad came in an hour ago with the parcel from Mr Holloway in Sheffield, wrapped in brown paper and smelling of machine oil. Inside was the hourglass he promised us years ago, the one with the red poppy on its lid and the little black wings fixed to either side, as if it might fly off the mantel if nobody watched it.

Mr Holloway had sent a note with it. Turn it when the vows begin, it said, and let it run until the last grain falls, and the day will feel longer than you fear. I laughed at that. Then I read it again and thought of Dad's thick fingers on the brass, and I did not laugh.

This morning I found the glass on the mantel with every grain in the top bulb, though I had gone to bed certain I had watched it run halfway. Dad was out in the yard with his tea, shoulders hunched against the cold, and when I asked him he only said that a glass keeps its own time and a good man knows when to hand it back. I still do not know what he meant. I do know he polished those wings every Sunday for as long as I can remember.

I am going to the church now with the poppy pinned in my hair and the glass in my bag. I will let it run.

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