Black outline butterfly tattoo in a fine line style on the upper back, with open, simple wings.

Outline butterfly on the back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A single-weight black outline of a butterfly with two pairs of wings and a thin central body sits on smooth skin. The linework is continuous and unshaded, with the ink filling no areas. The image is a close, warm-toned photograph with the tattoo centred in the frame.

Find an artist for this

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

The lift in Calder House had been broken since Tuesday, so Mo carried the shopping up nine flights and counted the butterflies as he went. They were drawn in black marker on the painted brick of every landing, always a single unbroken line, two pairs of wings and a thin stroke for the body. Nobody on the estate knew who had started them. Mo had assumed a kid with a biro until he found one on the bins behind the car park, drawn at exactly the same size.

Keep reading

On the sixth floor he found Ruth Abara sitting on the top step with a flask, watching a man in a hi-vis vest argue with his phone. She had been the one drawing them, she admitted, and only because the council had painted over the old murals the summer before. "Everyone colours them in," she said. "Kids, the lot. I never do. The lines are the bit that's yours. Colour is just paint, and the wall already has enough of that."

He asked her what happened to the butterflies that got scrubbed off, and she shrugged and said she drew another one. She moved out in April, after her mum's flat came up in Hastings, and the lift was mended the same week. Mo took the stairs anyway, out of habit.

On the fourteenth floor, the last butterfly was still there, half hidden behind a fire extinguisher. He stopped to catch his breath and the afternoon sun came slanting through the stairwell window, lighting up the empty wings so they looked, for a moment, as though someone had filled them in after all.

More like this

Black and grey realistic butterfly tattoo with a soft drop shadow, sitting on the upper back near the shoulder.
Shaded butterfly on upper back
Fine line tattoo of a cross formed from looping strands with scroll ends, placed on the upper back.
Looped cross on upper back
Grey shaded butterfly tattoo with soft gradient wings on the side of a person's ribcage, with the arm raised above.
Shaded butterfly on the side of the ribs
Small black linework tattoo of a stylised cross made of four leaf shapes with curled tendrils, on the ankle.
Black leaf cross tattoo on an ankle
Black fine line script reading family inside an infinity symbol, tattooed across the lower back.
Family script within an infinity symbol
Close photo of a small black tribal-style dragonfly tattoo on the lower back of a person wearing a white top.
Black dragonfly tattoo on the lower back
Realistic colour butterfly tattoo with blue-green wings and orange-red spots on the upper back near the shoulder blade.
Blue butterfly on a shoulder blade
Black and grey shaded swallow in flight tattooed on the upper chest.
Black and grey swallow in flight
Fine line black butterfly tattoo with curled antennae and a looping tail on the upper back, near the shoulder blade.
Single-line butterfly on upper back
Traditional style moth tattoo with ornamental patterned wings and two leaf shapes above its head, placed at the back of a person's neck.
Ornate moth on the back of the neck
Black lace-patterned bow tattoo with floral details on the side of a person's ribs, with the arm raised.
Lace-patterned bow tattoo on the ribs
Black fine line tattoo of three outlined butterflies with curling swirls on bare skin, placed along the side of the torso.
Three butterflies with swirling linework

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.