Upper arm tattoo of paisley and floral ornament in grey dotwork shading with red and pink flower accents.

Paisley and floral sleeve on upper arm

Dotwork · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A large upper arm tattoo of stylised flowers, paisley swirls and scalloped mandala-like motifs, wrapping from the shoulder down the arm. The grey shading is built from fine stippled dots and smooth tonal areas, with bold pink and red petals and small red leaves for colour. The design fills the frame diagonally against a plain black top and dark background.

Dotwork Botanical Upper arm Paisley Flower Leaf Mandala Scroll Floral ornament

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The loom in Hollin Cross had stood silent since the madder ran out, so when Berta Velling carried the last skein to the window, half the street came to watch her hands.

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The commission was a bridal shawl for the miller's youngest, Ysolde, who wanted cones like the ones on the old carpets, swelling at one end and curling back on themselves. Berta drew them first in charcoal on the back of a tithe notice, then sketched peonies and little scalloped rings like the moons over the weir. She wove through the nights while the lamp burned down to a bead, and the grey wool took the pink of the dye as if it had been waiting for it.

On the third morning the king's lamplighter arrived with a seal and a warning: the cloth tithe was due at the castle by noon, and the river toll had doubled. Berta handed over three grey lengths and kept the one on the beam. She worked the last border in the shade of the red leaves, one pass of thread at a time, and when the bell rang noon she still had a hand's width to go.

Ysolde came down the lane in her wedding wool and took the shawl without asking the price. Berta watched the cones turn as the girl walked, the red petals catching the light off the weir, and then she sat back at the loom until the dye pots cooled. She had pricked a finger on the bobbin, and when she looked at the small red bead of blood she was pleased with it, the way one is pleased with a last leaf placed exactly where it belongs.