Colour tattoo of red roses and green leaves over a black lace-effect pattern, covering the upper arm and shoulder.

Red roses in lace on an upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

Three large red roses and two buds are arranged over a black lace or netting pattern that wraps around the upper arm and shoulder. The roses have soft shading, pink highlights and detailed petal edges, with dark green leaves and stems filling the gaps. The lace is drawn in bold black linework, and the strong red and green colours contrast against the black.

Realism Botanical Upper arm Shoulder Rose Rose bud Lace Leaves Stem

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The snow had buried the lower road by Tuesday, so the coach from Hexham never came, and Mrs Oakley set the last of the tallow candles on the sill and told the four of us we would eat what the kitchen had. I was the one who could read the ledger, so I sat by the fire with it open on my knees and watched the window go white.

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Our only other guest was a lacemaker called Hester Dunning, who had walked in off the moor with a bundle under her arm. She unwrapped it on the settle: a length of black bobbin net, the mesh so fine it looked like smoke caught in a fishing line, and three roses she had pressed between sheets of newsprint years before. The petals had gone the colour of old brick. 'Every rose is a pattern I owe someone,' she said. 'I never finished paying.'

Who she owed, she would not say, but she worked through the night with a hook and a lamp, and by morning the net had grown a garland along the hem of the tablecloth, the roses lifted out of their paper and stitched down in red wool so bright it hurt the eyes. The road was cleared at noon. Hester tied up her bundle, paid Mrs Oakley in silver, and left the lace folded on the settle with a note in her small hand.

The note read: the third rose is yours, you were the one who kept the fire lit. I found red thread wound tight around my wrist when I woke, and the inn was empty except for the ticking of the clock and the snow still falling past the glass.