Two photographs of a colour tattoo on a woman's upper arm and shoulder, with black lace-style linework, pink and purple flowers, hanging chains and feathers.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lace, flower and feather tattoo on shoulder

Botanical · Shoulder · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo covers the shoulder and upper arm and combines black lace-like patterns with pink and purple flowers at the top. Below, fine black chains with beads hang down toward a small anchor-shaped charm and two feathers, which are shaded in grey and black. The left photo shows the design from the side and the right from behind, with soft shading and a dark background.

Botanical Neo-trad Shoulder Upper arm Lace Flower Chain Bead Anchor Feather

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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 Vera, I have finally got the lace back from the laundress in Margate, so you can stop asking whether I am still going to the Winter Garden on Thursdays. I am. The band has a new trombone player who cannot keep time but plays with such feeling that the girls forgive him everything, including the sour note he hits every time Mr Ellery stands up to announce the raffle.

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You will want to know about the chain. Mother sent it from Ramsgate in a tin that once held peppermints, wrapped in tissue, with a note saying only that Father's mother wore it to her first dance and that it had carried her through a bad winter in Liverpool. The little anchor at the bottom is so worn you can hardly see the edge. I wore it on Saturday with the grey dress and Ada Brennan asked if it was real silver. I said it was real enough.

There was a man at the pier end after the last waltz, selling feathers he had collected off the gulls on the groyne, sticking them to card for a penny. He said the grey ones were the best for luck because they were the ones that had flown the furthest. I bought two, and I have pinned them to the bottom of the chain so they swing when I turn. I know it is foolish. I have not felt foolish in a long while, and I find I rather like it.

Come on the Thursday. Bring your good shoes. We will dance until the lamps go out and walk home along the front with the tide coming in, and you can tell me what Mr Ellery's raffle prize really was, because I know you looked.