Black and grey realism tattoo of three roses and a compass with script lettering on the outer thigh.

Roses and compass on a thigh

Realism · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A large black and grey tattoo covers the outer thigh, showing three shaded roses, one above and two below, with a compass set in front of the lower roses. Script lettering runs diagonally between the roses in a thin, fine hand. The shading is smooth and detailed, with strong contrast in the petals and the compass face, and the wearer's black shorts and grey top frame the upper edge of the photo against a plain pale background.

Realism Thigh Rose Compass Script Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lift is out again, so I walked up the nine floors with your grandmother's compass in my coat pocket and a carrier bag of rose cuttings knocking against my knee. Mrs Okafor on the fourth floor said I looked like a man climbing to his own sentencing. I told her my knees have never agreed to any other kind of climbing.

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I found the compass in the bottom drawer under the tea towels, the glass still clear and the needle swinging about like it had not made up its mind in forty years. It still points north, mostly. You wrote on the back of your last postcard that you had got lost in Leeds and found a bus shelter with a decent view of the ring road, and that was the only news you sent all spring. I laughed at that for longer than was reasonable. The council sent round a man with a clipboard who said the balcony planters were ours to keep, so I have put the roses in them, though the wind off the car park takes the petals the minute they open.

I have been trying to copy out the words the way you wrote them on the envelope, in that thin, slanting hand you got from her. If you never get lost, then you never get found. I got it wrong twice on the back of the gas bill before I managed a line I was happy with, and by then it was dark enough that the lamps came on across the estate one by one, like someone going round a house switching things on for company.

I have set the compass on the windowsill facing the lights, so it can point you the right way when you come. Sunday, if the lift is still broken, come up the stairs slowly and I will have the kettle on.