Black and grey realistic rose tattoo with dog tags on a beaded chain, placed across a man's upper back near the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Roses and dog tags on a shoulder blade

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows two roses, one in full bloom and one partly open, with leaves and buds, and a beaded chain that loops down to two engraved dog tags. The roses and leaves are rendered with fine linework and soft grey shading that gives them depth and volume. The design is shown in black and grey across the upper back, with the subject's shoulder and neck visible at the top of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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It has rained on the market every day since you left, the kind that finds the gap in your collar and stays there. Mr Okafor on the fish stall says it's the Thames sulking. I've moved the roses under the awning by the tea van, because the big red ones bruise if the wet gets into their heads, and I'd rather they didn't look as tired as I feel.

A man came in this morning wanting two roses, one fully open and one only just making up its mind. He paid in coins gone soft from a pocket and asked me to wrap the stems in newspaper so the beaded chain looped over his wrist wouldn't snag. I didn't ask about the chain. He told me anyway. He was taking his brother's dog tags to the cemetery in Harrow and wanted something to leave beside them that wasn't a wreath from the supermarket. I gave him the bud for nothing. Nobody should pay for the last bit of a flower.

I thought of you while he turned the tags over, reading the stamped letters with his thumb the way you used to read the back of a cereal packet when you were small. Your own tags are in the tin with the ration book and Dad's watch. I keep meaning to put them on a ribbon so you can wear them under your shirt where they'll stay warm, but I know you'll say it's not a fashion show.

The rain has eased now and the gutters are running as if they've somewhere to be. I'm posting this with the Thursday delivery, and I'll keep one full rose back for the front window so you have something to find when you come up the road. Come home and smell it. Don't make me ask twice.

Love, Mum

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