Realistic colour tattoo of autumn maple leaves in orange, red and yellow running down a forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic autumn maple leaves on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows several maple leaves of varying size and angle, drawn with fine veins and soft shading that gives them depth. The leaves move from golden yellow at the top through deep orange to reddish brown towards the bottom of the arm. The background is a domestic room with a potted plant, a bookshelf and a wooden floor, and the arm is shown from an angled view.

Realism Botanical Forearm Maple leaf Leaves Autumn leaves Vein

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The maple went gold on Tuesday, all at once, the way Frank said it would when we planted it in the car park behind the Co-op the spring you married. You'll think I've lost my marbles writing about a tree, but the mower man keeps asking whose it is, and I told him it's ours, the wedding tree.

I've been sorting the attic because the boiler man needs the hatch clear. In a biscuit tin under the eaves I found the order of service from your day, the rain-spotted one, and pressed between its pages two leaves from that first autumn. One is yellow as custard, the other rusted at the edges like a kettle left out too long. Frank must have put them there. He never told me he was keeping anything.

Enclosed is a third, from this year. It's the bright orange one that came down on the bonnet of the Vauxhall. I thought you'd like to see the tree has gone on without us fussing, dropping its colours from the top downward the way it always does, as if it means to hold on to the high branches longest.

Ring me Sunday. Bring the little one. I'll make the tea strong, the way you like it, and we can take the leaves out and lay them on the table to see which is which.

Love, Mum