Tattoo on an upper arm of red and grey shaded roses above a bold black geometric block design, with a rose bud and leaves below.

Roses and black geometric blocks on upper arm

Botanical · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A close photograph of a tattoo on the outer upper arm. Two large shaded roses in red and grey sit at the top, with thorny stems and leaves, overlapping a bold black interlocking geometric block pattern in the centre. Smaller grey scrolling shapes and a red-tinted rose bud with leaves sit lower on the arm against pale skin.

Botanical Geometric Upper arm Rose Rose bud Leaves Thorn Stem Geometric shape Scroll

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the frost has got into the pump again, so I've been carrying water from the trough in the old enamel bucket that Dad swore was older than the barn. The roses on the south wall have gone to black sticks, every one, and I stood there this morning with the secateurs trying to decide which were dead and which were only sulking.

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Mum's stone-pattern tiles are still stacked in the dairy. You'll remember the set she bought at the Stamford sale, the black interlocking blocks like a fret you could walk round in your sleep. I've been laying them out on the flags to see if they'd fit the back step. They don't. Half are chipped and the rest are cracked clean through, so I've been turning them face down and chalking the good side on the backs instead.

Last Thursday the lad from the feed merchant came with the lorry and asked whether we'd sell the top field. I said no, and he looked at the roses on the wall as if I'd said something rude about his mother. Then he told me the field had been theirs before the war, and his grandad used to pick hips off the hedge there for the school. I hadn't known that. I gave him a cup of tea, and he left a sack of seed potatoes on the step without being asked.

There's one tight red bud on the last cane already, soft as a fingernail, right by the drainpipe. I've left it alone. Come at Easter if you can, and bring the good secateurs, not the ones you left rusting in the shed.