Colour tattoo of red roses, small yellow flowers and butterflies wrapping from the ribs across the lower stomach, in a botanical realism style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Red roses and butterflies across ribs and stomach

Botanical · Ribs · Colour · Photo

A large colour tattoo of several red roses with shaded petals, surrounded by small pale yellow flowers and green leaves. Two butterflies, one orange and blue at the lower left and one yellow and orange near the upper ribs, sit among the blooms. The design curves around the side of the torso from the ribs down towards the lower stomach, with black outlines and smooth shading across the petals.

Botanical Realism Ribs Rose Flower Butterfly Leaves Blossom

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit closer, under the awning, before the rain thickens and the gutters start talking over me. No, the flower stall isn't for sale today, it's for the tale. Ask old Mrs Okafor by the gate and she'll tell you the roses came in off the Kent lorry the week the sky wouldn't stop weeping, dark red and bruised at the edges, and nobody would give them a second look. Her Tobias bought the whole crate for a shilling and carried them home on his shoulder through the puddles.

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He meant to sell them. Instead he spent three nights stringing them into a garland with the pale yellow blossom the hedgerow boys brought in by the sack, tucking in leaves so green they looked wet. He set a pair of butterflies in it, one the colour of marmalade and one the blue of a gas flame, because they had landed on his sleeve and refused to leave. He hung the whole thing on the iron gate of the market hall, curled round the bars as if it were climbing out to the street.

The council man came at dawn with a clipboard and a grudge. He said flowers on public railings were a hazard and would be sorted by Monday. Tobias said nothing. He only lifted the garland down, carried it across the cobbles, and laid it at the feet of the man's wife, who was at the bakery counter with her arms full of bread and a face like a shut door. She laughed for the first time in a year. The clipboard went back into the coat.

So that is why the gate is bare now, and why Tobias sells roses by the bunch with a wink. The roses never last in this weather, and the butterflies never stay, but a thing made with the right hands will curl round whatever it is given to hold. Mind the wet step on your way out.