Enlarged with AI from a smaller original
Outline butterfly on the side of the neck
Fine line · Neck · Black and grey · Photo
The tattoo is a small butterfly drawn as a single dark outline, with its wings shown as open loops and a curled antenna at the body. It sits on the side of the neck where it meets the shoulder. The ink is solid black with no shading or colour, and the soft focus on the surrounding skin keeps attention on the design.
Find an artist for thisTake 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 Menas, the wax tablets from Ostia came up damp again, so this afternoon I sat at the back of the shop with the last good sheet of papyrus and a reed pen, trying to draw a butterfly the way old Kallias taught us to draw a horse: without lifting the reed once. You will laugh at me. Each time the line reached a wingtip the ink wanted to break, and each time I let it run on, it curved back round and found the body again, like a path that knows where the village is.
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Thais from the silver workshop came in while the ink was drying and asked what I was wasting good paper on. I told her it was a lamp design for the Nile captain, who wants something light to hang over his bed. She lifted the sheet to the window, turned it this way and that, and said the antennae looked like two questions that had decided not to ask. I had no answer, so I gave her the sheet and told her she could keep it if she would pay for the reed.
She did not pay. She folded the papyrus into her sleeve and went off along the quay toward the lighthouse, where she says her brother is building a boat that will not sink. I have thought about her words all evening.
Tomorrow I will try the drawing again, and if the line holds I will send you a copy. Write soon, and tell Mother the ink is not stealing from the house.
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