Realism tattoo on an upper arm showing a pink lily, a blue and pink butterfly, a shaded black and grey skull and fine black botanical vines.

Lily, butterfly and skull on an upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A large tattoo on the upper arm combines a pink lily with its stamens visible, a small blue and pink butterfly on the left, and a shaded skull beneath the flower. The skull is rendered in soft black and grey shading with highlights, while thin black linework forms leaves and scrolling vines at the lower right. The flower and butterfly carry the colour, and the skull and vines are mostly monochrome, so the composition feels layered around the central lily.

Realism Botanical Upper arm Lily Butterfly Skull Leaves Vine Flower

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marguerite,

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The lily came up in the tin bath behind the petrol station, the one Dad used to wash the Land Rover in, and I swear it is the only thing in Coyote Flats that doesn't look like it's waiting to leave. Nobody planted it. The bulb must have come in with the spring rain, or in the cuff of somebody's boot. Two petals opened on Tuesday and by Friday there were six, pink at the tips and white at the throat, with stamens thick with orange dust that the wind keeps blowing across the forecourt.

A blue and pink butterfly followed it, which I did not expect. They don't usually come this far past the irrigation ditches. Ruth at the diner says it's a sign of rain, and Ruth has been wrong about rain for nineteen years, so I've decided the butterfly means nothing except that the bath has water in it and someone has been watering the lily without telling me.

Last week, out past the cattle grid, I found a skull half buried in the verge, bleached so clean it looked carved. Jaw still hinged. I carried it back in the cab wrapped in a feed sack and set it down beside the bath. I'm not proud of that, but the lily has leaned towards it ever since, and a creeping vine has crept up the rusted rim as though it had been called to the bone.

I think I'll stay until the flower fades. Write back, and tell me whether you still keep the blue cup.

Love, Iris