Black and grey realism tattoo of roses, a compass and a butterfly with a ribbon banner across the upper arm of a person with blonde hair.

Roses, compass and butterfly on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo covers the upper arm and extends towards the shoulder, showing two large roses, a compass, a butterfly and a ribbon banner with partly visible lettering. The shading is smooth and detailed, with soft greys building depth in the petals and metal parts of the compass. The person is photographed from behind and the head is turned away, so the composition focuses on the arm against a plain grey background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Brother Anselm had kept the walled garden for thirty-one winters, and in all that time no one had asked him to draw a compass rose on anything but parchment. So when the abbot's messenger came up the chalk path with a sealed box and a request for a map of the coast beyond the salt marshes, Anselm wiped his hands on his habit and looked for a reason to refuse.

Keep reading

The box held a brass compass, its glass cracked across the north point, and a letter in a hand he did not know. The writer had been a sailor, lost off Lindisfarne, and asked only that the instrument be returned to his sister in the village of Holm, along with the small paper butterfly pinned inside the lid. Anselm found the butterfly folded so many times it had gone soft as cloth. Someone had pressed a rose petal between its wings.

He walked the path to Holm in the rain with the box under his arm. The sister was a widow who sold eggs from a basket at the lych gate. She did not weep. She turned the compass over, read the faded words scratched on its back, and laughed at him for bringing it in a box so fine.

'He'd have wanted the rose garden,' she said, and pressed the compass back into his palm. 'Bring me cuttings in spring. Keep this for the walk home. A compass wants a steady man.'

Anselm carried it back up the hill with the needle trembling towards a north that had never once agreed with him. In the garden the old briars were already budding, pale and stubborn against the wall.

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