Black and grey realism tattoo of two roses and an open pocket watch with Roman numerals, across an upper arm and shoulder.

Roses and pocket watch on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows two large roses, one at the top of the arm and one below, with a detailed pocket watch between them. The watch face has Roman numerals and visible gear work, and the roses have soft shading, fine leaf veins and highlights. The ink is black and grey, shown in a close side-on photo of the upper arm and shoulder against a dark background.

Realism Botanical Upper arm Shoulder Rose Pocket watch Clock Roman numeral Gear Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The last waltz had been called at a quarter to twelve, and Mae Harrowgate still had not stopped looking at the clock above the bandstand. Its hands had stuck at ten to twelve for as long as anyone at the Lyceum could remember. Ada in the cloakroom said it was the only honest clock in Hollin Bay, because it never pretended the night was ending.

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Stanley Vane crossed the sprung floor with two glasses of lemonade, a silver chain looped across his waistcoat the way his father had worn it. He had been courting her since the spring, stiff as a new collar, and tonight he had pinned a red rose to his lapel that had gone brown at the edges in the heat of the room. Mae held out her palm. Her father's pocket watch lay open on it. "It stopped on Tuesday," she said. "I wound it every night and it still stopped."

Stanley took it from her carefully, the way a person handles a bird, and turned it over to read the engraving on the back. To M, from the works, 1931. He did not say anything clever. He held it to his ear, frowned at the Roman numerals, then tapped the glass once with his thumbnail and eased the hands forward by a single minute with the tip of a penknife. The second hand gave a small hesitant tick, then another.

Above them, the band had started up again, one bar of the old waltz, and the great clock over the bandstand shuddered, its brass gears catching the light. Its hands swept past ten to twelve and kept going. Ada called from the cloakroom that the coats were all out and nobody was leaving yet. Mae laughed and let Stanley take her hand, and the watch ticked away in her other palm as if it had only ever been waiting for someone to ask it.