Traditional tattoo of a red rose and an open gold pocket watch with a script banner, shown on an arm.

Rose and pocket watch on an arm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A red rose with black shading and green leaves sits on the left, beside an open gold pocket watch with Roman numerals on a pale face. A script banner with lettering wraps between the rose and the watch. Bold black outlines and red, gold and green colour fill the design against a pale background of paper towel.

Traditional Forearm Rose Pocket watch Banner Script Leaves Clock Chain

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The Palais on Keel Street shuts at eleven, but the band keeps going until old Mr Dunne flips open the gold lid of his pocket watch and frowns at it. The hands have stopped at ten to twelve. You stand by the cloakroom with your gloves in one fist and watch him tap the glass with a thick thumb, as if the face might be persuaded. "Bad habit of mine," he says, "letting things run down."

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He asks you to dance, because the floor is empty and Maisie at the piano is pretending not to watch. You have two left feet and a collar gone damp under the chin. He smells of coal smoke and bay rum, and he steps on your toes twice before the tune finds its legs. Round the bare boards he hums the wrong song, and each time you turn beneath the chandelier the watch swings on its chain and catches the light like a small fish.

By the third waltz you notice the hands have started to move, though not forward. They slide backward past the Roman numerals toward the night he first asked you on the steps of the Co-op, and you realise he has been keeping that hour wound up all these years. He says nothing about it. He only holds you a little closer and hums the wrong song again.

When the lid finally snaps shut on its own, you take his arm at the door. Keel Street is wet and empty, the lamps still burning, and he checks the watch once more and says, "Right on time," though neither of you has looked at a clock since the first dance.