Three-panel photo of a full sleeve tattoo of pink magnolias and green leaves on a turquoise background, running from shoulder to wrist.

Pink magnolia full sleeve

Botanical · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

The sleeve shows pink magnolia blooms, closed buds and green leaves with small droplets of water on them, set against a turquoise background. The petals and leaves are rendered with smooth blended shading and soft highlights, giving a painted, lifelike look. The three photographs show the arm from different angles, with the flowers filling most of the frame.

Botanical Realism Upper arm Forearm Magnolia Flower Leaves Bud Water droplet Sleeve

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

The magnolia on the south wall had kept its buds shut through three hard frosts, and Mr Pardoe from the allotment next door said it had simply forgotten how to open. I told him a tree waits for its own weather. Then the rain came in off the Channel on Tuesday, cold and sideways, and I went out in my dressing gown with a torch to see whether the buds were splitting.

Keep reading

They were. Every bud had gone soft at the seam, and the petals inside were the pink of the inside of a shell, folded like unread letters. The leaves below each held a bead of water, and the torch went through them and lit them up small as boiled sweets. I stood there until my slippers soaked through, counting. Eleven blooms, all with the rain running off their cups.

This morning I cut the nearest one and put it in a jam jar on the windowsill, and then I thought of Pardoe, who has not spoken to me since the business with the fence. I carried it round in the drizzle. He opened the door in his cardigan, looked at the bloom for a long time, and said, very quietly, that his shed had been painted that exact turquoise the summer Joan left, and he had never once looked at it since.

I told him the magnolia was in the jar if he wanted it. He said he would think about it. I expect he will come round for the kettle tomorrow, and I have put the good cups out, just in case.