Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Moth and geometric sphere on upper back

Dotwork · Back · Mixed · Photo

A large tattoo of a moth with spread wings sits centrally on the upper back, framed by a dotted circle and an open triangle. Fine black linework and stippled dot shading define the wings and body, with muted red and pink tones on the wing panels. A black wireframe sphere hangs below on a vertical line, and a red and black Superman logo is partly visible on the right shoulder.

Dotwork Geometric Back Moth Triangle Circle 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 Nell, the lock-keeper at Hanwell says the moth came up the cut riding on a coal boat's tarpaulin, and it has been sitting on the cabin lamp since Tuesday. I have shooed it out twice. It will not go. Its wings are the colour of old brick and faded rose, with painted eyes on the panels, and when I hold the lantern close the dust off them catches gold.

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Dad would have known its name. I found his old instrument box under the bunk this morning, with the brass dividers he used for working out bearings and a hollow wire ball of little struts that he called the sky with the lines drawn in. I hung it from the hatch by its string, and the moth went round it twice before settling on the topmost point, as though it had decided the frame was a second lamp and a better one.

The Superman tin Harold left us is still on the shelf above the stove, the one with the red shield gone pink at the edges. I have been keeping buttons in it. Dad used to say a man in a cape was only a moth with better publicity. I laughed at the time. Tonight I tried to draw the triangle he sketched on the back of the chart, and the dividers would not close true until I stopped trying and let the moth walk across the paper and set its own angle.

I am leaving the hatch open and the lamp lit, and if it goes, it will go towards the lock and the lights of the town beyond. Come up on the next tow if you can. Bring the dividers. I cannot make the lines come right without you, and I think the moth is waiting for someone to finish the drawing. Your loving sister, June