Realistic colour tattoo of a monarch butterfly with orange and black wings and white spots, shown on the side of a person's torso.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic monarch butterfly on the side

Realism · Ribs · Colour · Photo

A detailed monarch butterfly is tattooed on skin, with outspread wings, black vein lines, white spots along the edges and thin antennae. The wings use orange, red and yellow ink with soft black shading that gives a raised, three-dimensional look. The butterfly is centred on a plain, lightly lit area of skin with a small mole visible above it.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas,

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The monarchs came over the harbour wall again this morning, three hundred at least, hanging off the fennel like loose orange paper. Mrs Yeo says they have crossed an ocean to get here, which I don't believe, but I didn't say so. You'd have laughed at her hat.

Father's boat is still on the slip. The paint has gone chalky along the port side, and I've been scraping it with the little blade you left in the drawer. I found the tin of cobalt under the bench, the one with the dent, and I thought of you telling me it was wasted on a hull.

Here is the thing I wanted to tell you. On Thursday a cannery man from the Lisbon boat asked whether the wings on the pier poster were real or painted. I said they were painted, the way the sea paints the bottom of the bay, and he didn't understand, so I fetched a dead one from the windowsill. Its black veins were still sharp, its white spots like someone had pressed salt into the edges. He held it up to the lamp for a long time before he gave it back.

Come home before the frost. The boat is nearly ready, and I'm tired of being the only one who knows which way the wind is going.

Your sister, Ines

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