Black and white photo of a fine line lotus tattoo with dotted tips centred on a woman's upper back, between the shoulder blades.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lotus tattoo on upper back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of a woman seen from behind, with her hair in a loose bun. A small lotus flower is tattooed centrally on the upper back, drawn in fine black outline with dotted accents at the petal tips. The plain skin and softly lit background keep the focus on the tattoo.

Fine line Botanical Back Lotus Flower Petal Dot

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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 Tom, the lotus in the long pond finally opened on Tuesday, the morning after the frost lifted off the reeds, and I was the only one up to see it. Your father would have called it showing off. Ruth from the allotments came round at nine with her terrier and stood at the edge with her hands jammed in her coat pockets, and neither of us said a word for a good minute, which for Ruth is a small miracle.

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The seed came in a biscuit tin I found in the shed while I was looking for the secateurs. Your handwriting was on the lid, from the summer you were nine, saying LOTUS DO NOT TOUCH. I had forgotten it was there. Seven years in damp soil and it still had the nerve to split. The first leaves were the size of a fingernail and I talked to them like idiots, which you will say proves nothing. The petals came up stiff and folded, pale at the middle and freckled at every tip with little dark dots, like the ink spots your grandmother used to put on her sketches so the lines would look finished.

I have pressed one petal between two sheets of greaseproof paper and put it in this envelope, so you can see what I mean without coming all this way. I know you have the new job and the flat with the awkward stairs. I know the phone is a thing you pick up on Sundays only. The drains need clearing in March, and I cannot lift the grating on my own any more, so that is the honest reason I am writing. The other reason is the pond, which is yours as much as mine.

It closes at dusk and opens again at dawn, or so the book says. I have set the alarm for five. Come when you can. The pond will keep, and I think I will too, for a while yet.

Love, Mum