Black and grey fine line peony tattoo with leaves, framed inside a triangle on the upper arm, with a coin placed beside it for scale.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Peony inside a triangle on the upper arm

Botanical · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A peony bloom with layered petals and leaves at the corners fills a triangular frame. The design uses fine black outlines, with soft shading and small dot stippling at the centre of the flower. The photo is black and white, and a US quarter is placed above the tattoo for scale.

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

Dear Morag,

Keep reading

The peony came up again this morning, the one by the triangle bed where the wall bends into the lane. Your grandfather planted it the spring you were born and swore it would never flower in island soil, yet it has flowered every June since, as stubborn as he was. Three beds sit inside the old wall, but only that one has three sides. He measured it with string and a bent nail and would not let me round the corners off.

I cut the first bloom on Tuesday and carried it down to the shop, though Mrs Gunn said nobody buys flowers on the island any more. I set it in the jam jar on the windowsill so the ferry men can see it when they pass. The petals were heavy with rain, layered like the pages of his old atlas, and when I bent close, the middle was full of tiny dark specks. I could never tell if they were pollen or ants, and I thought of you at six, counting them with your nose almost touching the glass.

The ferry is late again. The lads say the swell off the point has the crew green. I am not complaining. I am only saying the garden does not know you have gone to the city, and the peony does not care. It opens regardless. So will I, when you come home at the end of the summer and take a cutting back to your own flat, with its three-sided window and its view of the wrong sea.

Your loving Gran

More like this

Black and grey rose tattoo with stippled shading and dark leaves on a forearm, photographed in black and white.
Rose with leaves on a forearm
Black outline tattoo of a rose with serrated leaves on the inside of a forearm, in a botanical style.
Outline rose on a forearm
Black and grey dotwork rose with leaves tattooed across a person's shoulder and upper arm.
Rose and leaves on a shoulder
Black and grey dotwork peony tattoo with leaves on the inner forearm, shown against a pale background.
Two peonies on a forearm
Black and grey botanical tattoo of peony-style blooms, a dahlia, a lotus and leaves across the outer forearm, with soft pink wash on the petals.
Floral bouquet on a forearm
Black and grey dotwork mandala tattoo with a rose and a hanging crescent moon charm on a forearm.
Mandala and rose on a forearm
Black and grey realism style tattoo of a large peony with leaves and a second bloom behind it, placed on the upper arm and shoulder.
Black and grey peony on the upper arm
Fine black line tattoo of three roses arranged in a triangle on the inner upper arm, in a botanical style.
Three roses in a triangle on an arm
Black and grey blackwork tattoo of an open flower with dotwork centre and solid black petals, enclosed in a thin diamond outline on the upper arm.
Flower in a diamond frame on an upper arm
Black and grey shaded rose tattoo with leaves on the upper back near the shoulder blade, with bold outlines and soft grey shading.
Black and grey rose on the upper back
Black and grey linework tattoo of a rose, peony and poppy with leaves, sitting on the forearm.
Rose, peony and poppy on a forearm
Black and grey peony tattoo with two leaves on the inner upper arm, shaded in fine dotwork detail.
Peony on the inner upper arm

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