Black and grey realism style tattoo of an infinity symbol entwined with thorned vines and two shaded roses, placed on the chest.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Infinity symbol with roses and vines

Botanical · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows an infinity symbol formed from a thorned vine, with a large rose at the upper left and a smaller rose at the upper right. Leaves and curled tendrils extend from the loops, and the roses are shaded with soft greys to give them depth. The design is set against warm skin and is centred in the frame.

Botanical Realism Chest Infinity Rose Vine Thorn Leaves Tendril

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

Brother Anselm had tended the walled garden of Saint Ederyn for thirty winters, and in all that time the vine along the south wall had never once grown where he wanted it. It ran where it pleased. So when the abbot sent word that the bishop's cart would arrive before the feast, Anselm took his shears to the thorny runners and found the cuts would not stay clean. Each stem he severed grew back by morning, longer than before, and bent itself into a loop.

Keep reading

He told the abbot. The abbot, who had a sour tongue and a soft heart, walked out with him in the grey light and looked for a long time. "Leave it," he said. "Train a rose at each end, one for the brothers who went to the sea and one for the brothers who stayed. Then let the bishop wonder."

So Anselm bound the roses, one on each side of the loop, and the vine ran its figure eight over the wall as though it had nowhere to end. The bishop came, saw nothing strange in it, and asked only why the roses were so dark. Anselm said they were in mourning, which was true of most things in a monastery, and the bishop laughed and went in to eat.

Years later, a novice asked which way the loop was meant to run. Anselm, old now, pointed with his trowel and said it had never mattered. Start at either rose and follow the thorns, and they will bring you back to where you began.