A person in a patterned dress holds a Ricoh film camera, showing a black and grey rose on the forearm, a sleeve on the upper arm, and lettering and a botanical design on the legs.

Rose, lettering and botanical tattoos on a person holding a

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A person in a patterned dress holds a film camera at waist height, with the rest of the body and face out of frame. A black and grey rose with shading covers the outer forearm, and a dark sleeve tattoo sits on the upper arm. On the legs, a word in bold lettering sits on the lower leg and a darker botanical or floral design with leaves sits on the upper leg.

Lettering Forearm Upper arm Thigh Calf Rose Lettering Flower Leaves Camera Dress

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You find the camera wedged behind the bin chute on the eleventh floor of Calder House, a black Ricoh with a frayed strap and a roll of film still inside. The rewind wheel is stiff, and when you thumb it the counter reads twenty-six. Someone has stuck a rose sticker on the back, its petals gone soft from handling, and the lift smells of bleach and wet cardboard as you ride it down.

Keep reading

Mrs Adeyemi runs a developing bench above the chippy on Tanner Road, and she does not look up from her tank when you ask. "The last frame is always the one people forget," she says, and clips the strip to the light box. Frames one to twenty-six are ordinary: a kettle, a swing with one chain, a bus shelter poster with the corner torn off. Then the rose. It climbs the chain-link behind the bins, black where the light was thin and grey where it wasn't, and its shadow falls across a door numbered 27.

You climb the stairs that evening because the lift is out again. Door 27 is propped open with a brick, and the flat is empty except for a window facing the estate. On the sill sits a row of paper cups, each holding a single stem cut short and left to dry. You set the print down beside them, rose side up, and let the lift take you back down with nothing in your hands.