Close view of a bare leg and foot in a blue skirt, with a silver filigree band on the calf and a blue and silver scrollwork design on the ankle.

Metallic temporary anklet and calf designs

Ankle · Mixed · Photo

The image shows a bare leg and foot with two metallic temporary tattoos, a silver filigree band around the lower leg and a blue and silver scrollwork design with leaf-like motifs on the ankle and top of the foot. The fine, ornate linework is flat and graphic with no shading, set against a bright blue skirt and scattered petals on a wooden step. The metallic foil finish gives the designs a sheen and the composition is a close, shallow-focus crop.

Ankle Calf Filigree Scrollwork Leaves Anklet Temporary tattoo Metallic

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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 Marisol, the lift in Fenwick House has been dead since Thursday, so I carried the box of Mr Dhillon's leftover transfer sheets up eleven floors and I'm writing this on the concrete step by the bin chute, where the light is best. He gave them to me when the print shop on Mill Lane shut. Silver foil and a blue that looks wet even when it's dry.

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He cut the filigree for me on his kitchen table, one band at a time, copying from a pattern book his mother drew in biro in 1979. The scrolls curl back on themselves like fiddleheads, and the leaves look as if someone pressed them between the pages of a dictionary. He says the trick is never to rush the tail of a curl, because that's where the eye decides the line is finished. I spent Sunday afternoon peeling each design off its backing with tweezers, terrified of tearing one in half.

On Saturday the woman from number 42 knocked to ask about the bus to Derby. She had a silver band round her lower leg, bright as a teaspoon, and when she stepped onto the landing a red petal from somewhere had stuck to her heel. She didn't notice it. I didn't say anything, but I wanted to, the way you want to point out a word someone has spelled beautifully.

So I've asked Mr Dhillon to teach me the curl. He said come Tuesdays, bring a good pair of tweezers and a steadier hand than mine. Come up at Easter and I'll show you the sheets before they go into the bin. Love, Nadia.