Colour dragonfly tattoo with rainbow-toned wings and a black outline, placed on the lower back above denim.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Rainbow dragonfly on lower back

Back · Colour · Photo

A dragonfly is tattooed in a horizontal pose across the skin. Its wings are outlined in bold black linework with vein details, and the wing panels are filled with soft gradients of red, orange, yellow, green and purple. The slender grey-shaded body tapers to a point, and the tattoo sits centrally against a warm, softly lit background with the edge of denim visible at the lower right.

Back Dragonfly Wing Insect

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The crack had run across the lower panel since Easter, and my father always said a window should be mended before the bride sees it, not after. So on the Saturday morning I was up the ladder at St Aldric's with a pot of solder, a box of offcuts and a flask of tea going cold on the sill, trying to coax a new piece of amber glass into the frame before the flower women arrived.

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The dragonfly came in through the open vent while I was cutting the lead. It ignored the flowers and the choir running scales in the vestry. It hung over my bench with its tail held straight out like a dart somebody had thrown and forgotten, then settled on the sill beside my tea. Its wings caught the morning through the old glass behind me and threw little pools of red and green across my wrists. I had done this work for eleven years and never once looked at the colour of my own hands.

I held still. Dad had taught me that a glazier who moves too quickly drops things. When the insect finally lifted, it went straight to the new amber piece, circled it twice, and left through the gap where the crack had been. I climbed down expecting nothing and found a faint smear of green on the glass, drying in the shape of a wing.

The bride came up the path at half eleven in a dress the colour of cream, and the first thing she did was look up. She didn't see the repair. She saw the light falling through the corner, and the small streak of colour I had never meant to keep. I didn't tell her. Some mends are better left to look like they were always meant to be there.