Black linework flash of a scorpion whose curled tail ends in a rose with leaves and thorns, drawn on a plain pink background.

Scorpion with a rose tail in black linework

Traditional · Black and grey · Flash

A scorpion with its claws open and its segmented tail curled upwards, ending in a rose with two leaves and thorny stem. The design uses bold black outlines with stippled dot shading on the body and shell texture. It is shown centred on a flat pink background with no other elements.

Traditional Scorpion Rose Leaves Thorn Stem

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The pass has closed twice since you left, and Tomas says the snow will hold until Saint Brigid's day, so I am writing this by the stove at the Casa Ferrer with the mules stamping in the byre below. You will not believe what came up the track on Tuesday. A carter from the valley had a crate of roses for the priest's garden, and when he lifted the lid, a scorpion the length of my hand was sitting in the damp moss between the stems, claws open, its tail curled high over the blooms as though it were guarding them.

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Nobody would touch it. The carter swore it had stung him through his leather glove. Old Alba said the sting goes into the rose and not the hand, which is why the tail is shaped like a stem, and Father Ruiz laughed and called it nonsense, yet he did not go near the crate either. In the end I fetched a tin cup from the kitchen, slid it over the creature with a flat board, and carried it up to the old chapel wall where the wind is strongest.

I told it the flowers were not its enemy. It lowered its tail slowly, the rose nodded once against the stone, and then it walked off into the rocks like a guest leaving a wedding before the dancing starts. I did not expect to feel sorry to see it go.

One rose in the crate still had a single petal left, red as your mother's shawl, and I have it pressed inside this letter. Keep the lamp lit for me on the twelfth. I will bring you the cup, and you can see the marks for yourself.