Black and grey blackwork tattoo of three tall pine trees on a person's upper back and shoulder blade, photographed in black and white.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Pine trees across a upper back

Blackwork · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A person's bare upper back is shown from behind, with the head cropped out of frame. A large black tattoo of three tall conifer trees rises diagonally across the shoulder blade, the largest on the left and two smaller ones trailing to the right. The trees are built from dense, textured black strokes with lighter grey gaps, and the plain background keeps the focus on the design.

Blackwork Botanical Back Shoulder Pine tree Conifer Tree Forest

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The Forestry men came up the tip on Tuesday with a lorry of seedlings bedded in wet sacking, and they planted them in rows like they were laying out a churchyard. Mr Hebden says the shale will hold them if the roots go deep enough, and that a tree on a tip is worth three in a field, because nobody else wants the ground. I told him that sounded like half the men on this street. He didn't laugh.

I took the last of the afternoon shift to get them in before the frost. The ground is grey and gives under the boot like wet cake, and every hole filled with black dust that got under my nails and stayed there through supper. Our Tommy carried the water up in two buckets and spilt most of it, and I let him, because he's been wanting to be useful since the colliery whistle went quiet for good.

Three came up out of the bottom of the bank, the ones that looked like nothing at all. The tallest I put at the top, where the wind comes round the wheel-house. The other two I set lower and off to the side, leaning the way the big one leans, so they'd have something to shelter behind. Hebden says the tall one will outlive us all if the wind doesn't take it first.

I haven't told Mam where I put them. You'll have to come home and see for yourself, though I suspect you'll spot them from the bus before you find the house. Keep your coat on. It's cold up here, and the trees are not going to wait for you.