Black and grey geometric lotus flower tattoo with dotwork shading on the inner forearm, near the wrist.

Lotus flower on the inner forearm

Dotwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey lotus flower sits on the inner forearm and wrist, with its outer petals curling down towards the wrist. The petals are built from bold outlines, solid black fills and stippled dotwork shading that gives the flower depth. The background is a patterned white top with black line motifs, which contrasts with the tattoo.

Dotwork Geometric Botanical Forearm Lotus Flower Petal Leaves Mandala

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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

The big top came down for the last time on a wet Tuesday outside Maidstone, and I was the only one who didn't look up when the poles went. I was sitting on a crate in the wardrobe tent with the centre panel across my knees, picking out the old stitching where Dad had once worked a flower into the seam. Nobody remembered it was there. It was black thread on faded blue canvas, petals stacked like the tiers of a wedding cake, and every petal was stippled with tiny dots he'd pricked in with a bradawl because he said solid lines looked like a sign for a chip shop.

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Teddy Vosper came in with his flask and asked whether I could cut the panel into bunting for the pub his brother kept in Dover. I said I could. I didn't say that the lotus was the last thing the old man had drawn before his hands went, or that I'd spent three nights working out how the outer petals bowed towards the base, the way a bloom sinks when it's been out in the rain too long.

Under the third petal, where the thread had rotted, I found a pencil line in his square capitals: LOTUS GROWS OUT OF THE MUD AND OPENS ANYWAY. It was the sort of thing he'd say to the lads when the takings were thin and the lions were off their food. I laughed so hard I had to sit down on the sawdust.

I didn't cut the panel. I folded it into a square the way you fold a flag, put it in the trunk marked PROPS, and kept the bradawl for myself.