Colour traditional tattoo of a peacock with red flowers and leaves above a large feathered tail, across a person's upper back.

Peacock and red flowers across a back

Traditional · Back · Colour · Photo

A peacock perches on a branch of red five-petalled flowers and green leaves, with its long feathered tail fanning down the centre of the back. The outlines are bold and the feather eyes are shaded in blue and gold, with soft green and dark shading giving the tail depth. Strong saturated colours against the pale skin make the design the clear focus of the composition.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ivy,

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You will not believe what came off the travelling show's lorry on Saturday. Mr Pell had been promising his fair since Easter, and when it finally rolled onto the rec ground the whole of Hollin Cross turned out in Sunday coats. There was a man with a snake that swallowed its own tail, and a woman who could hold a cigarette in her eyelid, but the thing I kept returning to was the peacock. It stepped about a cage at the back of the tent, and every so often it lifted its tail like a fan opened at a wedding.

Mr Pell caught me staring and said I could have a closer look if I fancied it. The bird had come from a lady in Gravesend who could no longer keep it, and it had been eating him out of house and home. He let me reach through the wire with a stalk of red geraniums from the harvest table. The peacock took them straight from my fingers and then spent a full minute admiring its feathers. The eyes were blue as swimming baths tile, ringed in gold, and on the one nearest the bars I swear there was a heart in the middle.

Mum says I am daft to want one. I told her a peacock is no more trouble than the Pattersons' goat, and she laughed so hard she had to sit down.

I have three shillings saved from the Co-op and a plan. Don't tell anyone. If Mr Pell is still camped on the rec when this reaches you, I'll bring you a feather for your hatbox, and you can tell me whether a peacock can love a girl who brings it geraniums.

Your loving sister, Peg

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