Black ink lotus flower with a circle and cross symbol tattooed on the ankle, with dotwork shading on the petals.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lotus and circle symbol on an ankle

Botanical · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A black ink tattoo of a lotus flower sits on the ankle, with a large open circle at its centre and a cross-like motif below it that ends in two small droplet shapes. The petals are outlined with fine lines and filled with stippled dotwork shading, while the circle and cross use bolder, solid linework. The tattoo is shown in sharp focus against a grey lace fabric, with the foot raised and angled toward the camera.

Botanical Geometric Ankle Lotus Circle Cross Petal Droplet

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marit,

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The lotus came up in the cistern behind the chapel the week after the boat went out without you. Nobody planted it. Father swears the seed rode in on the ballast stone from the Kittiwake, but Mrs Abernethy says a heron carried it, and she has never let a fact stand where a story would do. Either way it opened on Tuesday, pink at the edges, and the whole island walked up to look at it as if it were a wedding.

I have been sitting by it most evenings with the tin of brass washers you left in the drawer. You always said the circle was the only honest shape, and I used to tell you honest shapes never got anyone anywhere. Now I drop one washer into the water each night and count the rings until they reach the stone wall. Eleven, so far. The last one reached the wall at the same moment the rain started, and I could not tell which had caused which.

The rain gauge on the north post has filled three times since the ferry. Four drops hang from its lip at dusk, the way the little drops hang from the cross you scratched into the lid of your tea chest the night before you left, the one you said was a Venus sign for people who had given up on being loved. I thought it was daft. I still think it is daft. But I wrote the date on the back of the gauge in pencil, so you can see how long I waited.

Come home on the turn of the tide, or send word. The heron is back, and it has taken to standing exactly where you used to stand.

Love, Ilse