Black and grey mandala tattoo with a rose and a dangling crescent moon charm on a forearm, against a red and navy striped backdrop.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Mandala and rose on a forearm

Geometric · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A large mandala sits at the centre of the design, with a rose tucked beneath it and fine lines hanging down to a small crescent moon. The work uses fine linework with stippled shading in the petals and the mandala rings. The image is black and grey, shot in soft natural light against a red, white and navy striped fabric and a white blouse.

Geometric Botanical Fine line Forearm Mandala Rose Crescent moon Chain Floral

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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You will not believe what Mrs Achterberg has done to the wedding. Mother wanted the lace from Grandmother's trunk, the cream one with the scalloped edge, and Mrs Achterberg took one look and said it needed a centre. So she has spent three weeks at the kitchen table with a magnifying glass and a tin of black thread, working a rosette the size of a saucer in the middle of the veil. Round and round it goes, ring inside ring, each ring dotted so finely I thought at first it was dust.

Underneath the rosette she has stitched a rose, half open, the way the one by the back gate looked the week before Dad died. I did not ask her to put that in. She said a centre wants something to hold it up, and roses are heavy things to look at for long. From the lowest petal she has hung three fine chains, and at the end of each a little crescent moon no bigger than a fingernail.

Last night I asked her why the moons. She said the bride was married in February under a moon that was only a sliver, and she would rather the girl walked down the aisle with something that was still waiting to be full. I thought that was a very odd thing to say about a wedding, and then I thought about Dad's watch, which still runs three minutes slow.

The veil goes to the church on Saturday, and Mother has stopped crying about the cost. Come up on the early train and bring the good scissors, because Mrs Achterberg has left one thread hanging from the rosette and she says a family member must cut it or the luck goes out of the lace. Love, Hester