Pink and black monarch butterfly tattoo with a circle of script quote text, spanning two forearms pressed together in a realistic style.

Monarch butterfly and quote across two forearms

Realism · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A large monarch butterfly with pink, red and black wings, white spots and detailed shading sits in the centre of the image, spanning two forearms. Curved black script in a circle around it includes the words 'it has no end' and 'that's how long I want to be your friend'. The colour ink dominates and the shading is smooth, with a dark background behind the arms.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lock at Sallow Bridge had been shut since Tuesday, and Nell had spent the morning on the cabin step of the Constance watching a monarch work its way along the towpath reeds. Tamsin came up from the engine hatch with grease to her elbows and a spanner in her back pocket. "If you're waiting for the water to rise by staring at it, you'll be here till Christmas."

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"It's heading for the coast," Nell said. "Doesn't stop for locks." "Neither do I, when the bank's dry and the tea's on." Tamsin sat down beside her, close enough that their shoulders knocked. They had met at this same mooring two summers back, when Tamsin was a stranger with a bad cough and a borrowed coat, and Nell had given her the bunk nearest the stove without asking why. They had been friends since before either of them could say so out loud.

The gates groaned open at four. They worked the boat through in the amber light, Tamsin on the paddles, Nell on the mooring lines, and the butterfly lifted off the lock beam and drifted ahead of the bow like a dropped ribbon. It kept just in front of them all the way to the next bridge, where it finally turned east over the water meadows and was gone.

"Well," Tamsin said, wiping her hands on a rag. "That's the lock sorted." Nell kept her eyes on the reeds. "It'll find its way." "So will we," Tamsin said, and filled the kettle, as if the matter had been settled between them a long time ago, which it had.

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