Colour tattoo of a pink ribbon with a black-outlined cherry blossom at its centre, on the back of a neck.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Pink ribbon and cherry blossom on the neck

Neck · Colour · Photo

A pink ribbon shape sits behind a cherry blossom flower with a yellow centre and five petals outlined in black. The petals are filled with pink shading that fades towards the edges, and the ribbon is softly washed in pale pink. The tattoo is photographed close up on the back of the neck against plain skin, with some light glare on the surface.

Neck Ribbon Cherry blossom Flower

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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

Mrs Hollis pins the paper blossom to your lapel before the first waltz, the way she has every Saturday since the Palais reopened, and tells you not to let the trombonist see it or he will want one for his bride. The petals are cut from pink crepe, five of them, each edged with Indian ink that has begun to bleed in the damp. You have sixteen dances on your card. The ribbon tied through your buttonhole is the colour of boiled sweets, and it trails over your hip whenever you turn.

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Your partner is a quantity surveyor from Halifax who counts his steps under his breath and apologises every time he treads on your shoe. He asks what the flower is for. You tell him it comes from a book your mother kept, a tree that blooms for about a week and then lets everything go at once, and that the trick is to enjoy it before the wind arrives. He laughs as if you have made a joke, and perhaps you have.

At eleven the lights dim and the band slides into something Mrs Hollis calls the last request. A woman in green crosses the floor and hands the bandleader a folded slip. He reads it, looks across the room at you, and nods. She is older than you, her hair set in silver waves, and she stops a yard away with her hands clasped as though she is waiting for a bus.

You take off the blossom and offer it to her. She does not take it. Instead she holds out her arms, and you step into them, and the two of you turn slowly under the mirror ball while the petals on your coat catch the light, one by one, then all together.