Black ink tattoo of a cartoon koala clutching a eucalyptus sprig, placed on the outside of an ankle above a white sock.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Koala holding a eucalyptus sprig on an ankle

Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A cartoon koala sits upright and clutches a thin eucalyptus sprig with its left paw, drawn in bold black outlines with small details for the ears, nose and curled tail. The ink is solid black with no shading or colour, and the design fills the frame against bare skin. The tattoo sits on an ankle, with a white sock visible at the lower left of the photo.

Ankle Leaf Branch Animal Cartoon

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Pim had been told the queen wanted the sprig by dusk, and already it was wilting in his left paw. He had climbed the ridge above Caddle Vale since before the bells rang the third hour, past the blackthorn and the sulking goats, to the one grove where the old gums still held their oil in the leaves. Every branch he passed looked fresher than the one he had picked, so he picked another, and another, until he had a dozen and kept only the best.

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The grove belonged to Mother Ashgrove, who was not a witch, whatever the village said, but who had grown tired of travellers stripping her trees. She sat on a stump with a basket of acorns in her lap and watched him come down the slope with his tail curled behind him like a question mark. "You're the post-koala," she said. "They always send the small ones."

Pim explained in a rush: the queen's cough, the physicians who had tried mint and honey and every salve from the coast, the old rhyme that said eucalyptus cleared the chest. He did not mention that he had stopped to admire the view and had nearly forgotten why he was there.

Mother Ashgrove took the bundle, sniffed it, and pulled out the sorriest sprig of the lot. "The oil lives in the stem, not the leaf," she said, and bent the tip until it cracked. The scent rose sharp and green. Pim ran all the way back down to the palace, and the queen breathed easier by moonrise. He was given a silver brooch for his trouble, which he wore for a week before deciding it looked better on a leaf.