Greyscale realism tattoo of an open pocket watch with Roman numerals, two daisies and a fob chain, on the side of a ribcage.

Pocket watch and daisies on the ribs

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A shaded pocket watch with Roman numerals sits at the centre of the design, with an open lid on the left and a chain and fob hanging to the right. Two daisies, one above the watch and one below, add soft, detailed petals. The tattoo is rendered in black and grey with smooth gradients, and the composition runs diagonally across the side of the torso.

Realism Botanical Ribs Pocket watch Clock Roman numeral Daisy Flower Chain

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The clockmaker in Ashby had sold the Carrow Brothers Travelling Show a pocket watch on credit, and every spring the bill came round with the swallows. By the wet summer of that year the show had three caravans left, one lion that would not perform, and a ringmaster named Teodor Vane who wound his father's watch each night before the tent went up.

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The watch had a silver lid that opened like a mouth, and inside it he kept a pressed daisy from the field where the company had first pitched. Vane said the daisy kept the weather off. The children said it kept him from sleeping. Every evening he set the hands to the hour the show had last been full, and every morning they had crept back a little.

When the bailiff's man came in September, Vane gave him the watch instead of the money. The man turned it over, weighed it in his palm, and said it was running slow. Vane said it had always run slow, and that was why they had never missed a town. The bailiff laughed and took it anyway.

Nobody in Ashby ever saw the watch again, but the field below the hill came up with daisies the following June, thick as lamplight. The lion, who had never performed in his life, walked out among them every morning and stood with his head bowed, as if he were waiting for the first bell.