Traditional style tattoo of a red and yellow rose with green leaves and a black banner of lettering across the inner forearm.

Red rose and banner lettering on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A red and yellow rose with green leaves and a dark stem sits at the top of a black banner with white lettering that wraps around the forearm. The bold outlines and flat, solid colour fills are typical of traditional tattooing. The arm is shown from the elbow to the fist against a tiled floor, with a person standing behind it in a dark graphic t-shirt and jeans.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

The wind got under the big top again last night and tore the second banner clean off its pole, so I've spent the morning on my knees in the mud with a pot of size and a bad temper. We move on to Selby on Thursday and I still owe Mr Harker three boards before he'll cover the diesel. The rose panel is finished, at least. You'd have laughed at me, perched on an upturned crate with my tongue between my teeth, trying to match the petals to the red of the cherries on the toffee-apple stall.

Harker picked the words himself from a tatty book kept in the caravan. Black letters across the bottom, cut hard like they were carved, and the saying runs round the board in four lines. I got as far as "find happiness" before the light went and I had to stop. The last line won't fit unless I shrink the letters to the size of flies, so I'll be squinting by the lamp tonight.

The candyfloss girl came over this afternoon and asked whether the red would hold once the banner's rolled up for the winter. I said paint is paint. She said her gran swore by linseed and a pinch of salt, then went off with sugar in her hair and left me thinking about it. I mixed a little salt in anyway. It can't hurt, and the rose is the only bit of the thing I'm proud of.

Write back soon, and tell Mum the caravan roof is still on.

Love, Ada

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