Colour tattoo of a poppy, feathery fronds and a tied bow with green leaves on the inner forearm, in a botanical neo-traditional style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Poppy and ribboned bundle on a forearm

Botanical · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A bundle of stems tied with a bow runs diagonally down the forearm. A deep purple poppy sits at the centre, with teal fronds, small green buds and yellow grass-like stems around it, and the ends are finished with green leaves bound by gold ribbon. The linework is bold and dark, with solid fills and soft shading on the petals and bow, set against the skin with a clear plastic backdrop.

Botanical Neo-trad Forearm Poppy Bow Ribbon Leaves Frond Bud Grass Stem

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mrs Abernethy had the bundle on the counter before the kettle boiled, and she wanted it wrapped the way her mother had wrapped things, which meant no paper, only ribbon. Sol tied the stems at the waist with gold silk, let the bow fall over his knuckles, and tucked the teal fronds in where the wind off the river would not get at them. He had been at the stall since five. The poppies were the last of the Kent cut, and the grower had sworn they would hold until Tuesday.

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She paid in coins she had counted into her glove. "For the grave at Brompton," she said, "and then the boy's room. He always liked the red." Sol did not ask which boy. He had learned at this stall that flowers rarely needed explaining, only carrying.

Thursday came and the bundle did not. Sol rang the number on the card and got a man who said the lady had gone to her sister's in Margate. So on the Saturday he took the train himself, the bundle wrapped in brown paper against the drizzle, the green leaves at the ends already darkening with cold.

The sister's door had a brass knocker shaped like a hand. He left the flowers on the mat and walked back to the station before anyone could answer. Only on the platform did he notice that one end of the ribbon had worked loose and was trailing behind him, gold on the wet pavement, like a thread someone might follow back.