Two matching red ladybug tattoos with black spots and outlines, one on each forearm near the wrist.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Matching ladybug tattoos on two wrists

Forearm · Colour · Photo

Two people's arms are shown side by side, each with a small ladybug tattoo near the wrist. The ladybugs have bold black outlines, red wings with black spots and white highlights, and small black curled antennae. The bright red ink stands out against the skin, and the denim background sits behind the arms.

Forearm Insect

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marnie, the ladybugs came back to the balcony rail on Tuesday, eleven of them crawling over the cracked geranium pot before the wind carried the lot down to the car park. Mrs Adeyemi on fourteen says the draught from the lift shaft brings them, a breeze that smells of bleach and chips. I told her she has no business being so poetic before her second cup of tea.

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Your mum rang me in a state about the pair of you and those little red beetles inked in the back room of that shop on Carrow Road. She said the artist had a face like a bulldog and a heart like a biscuit tin, and charged you twenty pounds less because you were skint and cheerful. I said good. That's what matching is for: two people who can't sit through an afternoon without a row, but who will always carry the same small dot of luck.

I went up to the flat in the top block, the one with the lift that's been broken since Easter, and found the old Quality Street tin at the bottom of the wardrobe. Inside were our bus tickets, a dried conker and the button off your granddad's donkey jacket. Under them was a ladybug I drew on a paper napkin the night you were born, wings all wrong, antennae curled like question marks. I've enclosed it. Pin it somewhere the wind can't reach.

Ladybugs don't come to a place looking for trouble, my girl. They come because something is growing there. Come up at the weekend and bring your sister. Your gran is making scones, and there's a seat by the window with a view of the car park and the sky beyond it, which is more than most people get.