Shaded purple lily tattoo with black stars, swirls and script letters on a woman's upper back near the shoulder blade.

Purple lily and stars on upper back

Realism · Back · Colour · Photo

A large purple lily sits at the centre of the design, with petals and stamens drawn in soft shading and highlights. Black and grey stars, fine swirling lines and script letters surround the flower across the upper back. The colour is concentrated in the purple petals, while the stars and background shadows are in grey and black, and the photo is taken from behind at a slight angle.

Realism Botanical Back Lily Flower Star Swirl Script Letter

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The frost took the top off the field again on Tuesday, so I've been out with the lamp before the ewes are up, which is why this letter smells of diesel and cold tea.

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Mum's lilies came up under the hedge by the water trough the morning after the hard frost, purple as a bruise and twice as stubborn. Dad swore they'd rot before they opened. They didn't. I counted eleven stems, and the stamens had that dusty gold on them, like pollen dropped on a cold windowsill. I didn't cut any. I stood there in my wellies feeling like I'd been caught doing something I shouldn't.

Last night the sky cleared right over the top field and I stood at the gate until my fingers stopped working, looking at the stars Dad used to name for us. You always picked the wrong one and he always let you have it. I kept thinking of the swirl of paper he kept in the tack box with our names on it, the loops of his handwriting trailing off to nothing at the edge of the page.

I've decided to cut three stems and post them to you wrapped in the feed merchant's calendar, though I know they'll be limp by Thursday. Come home at Easter and we'll dig up the rest together. Bring the good spade this time. Love, Jo.