Black and grey realism tattoo of a pocket watch with Roman numerals and two roses on the side of the ribs.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Pocket watch and roses on the ribs

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A pocket watch with Roman numerals and ornate engraved casing sits above two large roses, with a shaded dark background behind the motifs. The shading is soft and smooth, with strong contrast in the petals and the watch face. The design is shown in a close, angled view across the side of the torso.

Realism Ribs Pocket watch Clock Rose Roman numeral Flower

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dad's watch stopped at twenty to four the morning the lift in Calder House gave up for good, and I have never got round to winding it since. I am writing this on the back of a council notice because the electric is off again and the candle keeps guttering. Mrs Okafor from flat 14 brought soup up on a tray this afternoon, which is how I know the whole block has been talking.

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You remember the roses he kept in the window box on the eleventh floor, the ones that never bloomed properly in that wind. He used to say they were stubborn, like the rest of us. He'd bring cuttings home from the market in jam jars and talk to them as if they could hear him. The watch was his father's, from the railway, its silver case worked all over with curls that caught the light when he flipped the lid. Roman numerals on the face, because he said Arabic numbers were for people in a hurry.

Yesterday I took it to the man under the railway arch on Mill Road, the one who still does repairs with a magnifying glass screwed into his eye. He held the movement up to the window for a long time and said the mainspring was tired but not broken. He wanted twenty pounds. I paid him with the bus fare and the last of the tea, then walked home with the thing ticking in my coat pocket, loud against my hip the whole way up the stairs.

So come up when the lights are back on, and bring the roses if the frost hasn't finished them off. We'll set the hands together at twenty to four and see whether the old thing still keeps going. Mind the third step from the top, it's still missing its nosing.