Black and grey realism tattoo of two roses and a pocket watch with Roman numerals on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Roses and pocket watch on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A forearm tattoo shows two shaded roses with leaves, with an open pocket watch with Roman numerals and a crown at its top set between them. The work uses smooth greyscale shading with soft highlights on the petals and metal casing, and fine detail on the watch hands and numerals. The design fills the forearm from the elbow area down, photographed against a dark sleeve and a light tiled background.

Realism Forearm Rose Pocket watch Clock Roman numeral Leaves Flower

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The watch had not kept true time since the spring Ward Seven flooded, and Marjorie Quill had long since stopped correcting it. Its silver case was dented on one side, and the little crown on top was worn smooth by her grandfather's thumb before it was ever worn by hers.

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Every night at three, the old men on the ward asked her the hour. She would open the case, read the Roman numerals by the lamp, and tell them whatever the hands showed. They settled for that. Nobody on Ward Seven ever asked whether the watch was right, only whether it was late enough yet for the day to begin.

One night Mr Pell, who had worked the signal boxes before his legs gave out, held out his hand for it. He turned it over slowly and said the roses engraved on the lid were wet, though the window had been shut all evening. Marjorie looked, and they were. She had no answer for that, so she wound the watch as her grandfather had shown her, slowly, until the spring grew tight.

The hands moved true for the first time in years. At four minutes past three, Mr Pell closed his eyes and was still. On the sill, the white rose she had carried up from the car park opened one more petal, and Marjorie wrote the time in the book without needing to check the watch again.