Black ink lotus mandala with an Om symbol above it, in dotwork and linework, on a person's back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lotus mandala with Om symbol on a back

Botanical · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A lotus flower sits at the centre, with layered petals filled with ornate mandala patterns and stippled dotwork shading. A black Om symbol sits above the flower, with small dots and teardrop shapes radiating outward. Thin branching vines with leaves curve out on either side, and the design is finished in black ink with no colour.

Botanical Dotwork Back Lotus Om symbol Mandala Leaves Vine Dot

Find an artist for this

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 pond under Hollin Reach had skinned over twice that week, and Adaeze was still chipping at the ice with a warm rod when the transit boat from the orbital ministry settled on the dome's landing pad. Tomas Vell stepped out holding a tablet that displayed the water allotment in red. "Your pond drinks more than three barracks," he said, not unkindly. "Effective at the turn of the cycle, it drains."

Keep reading

She did not argue. She led him instead to the cold room where her grandmother's ledger lay under glass, a page of pale ink and fine stippling. A lotus sat at its heart, its petals layered like hands held in prayer, each one filled with a lace of mandala and tiny dots as thick as pollen. Above it hung a single curled syllable, the sign the first settlers hummed when the pumps were switched on, so the water would move in time.

"Every petal is a family," Adaeze said. "Every dot is a seed. We never kept them in the pond alone. We kept them in the drawing, sealed in wax, one for each dot." She pressed her thumb to the page and it came away gritty with dried wax. "The pond is only the pictures' way of getting out of the dark."

Vell looked at the ledger for a long time. Then, with the clumsy care of a man who had not hummed since school, he started the pump in the corner. The water shivered, found its rhythm, and the old syllable filled the cold room. Adaeze took a wax-sealed dot from the margin, pressed it onto his palm, and said, "Now you're keeping one too."