Black and red lettering tattoo with swirling vines, a small purple butterfly and a red heart shaded on the inner wrist and forearm.

Script letters, vines and heart on a wrist

Lettering · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A close photograph of a tattoo on the inner wrist, showing stylised script letters entwined with black scrolling vines. A small purple butterfly sits at the upper left and a red heart with grey shading sits near the bottom of the design. The black linework is bold and the composition is centred on the wrist.

Lettering Botanical Forearm Letter Script Vine Heart Butterfly

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, the purple butterfly came back to the nasturtiums this morning, the one with the torn wing, and I stood at the kitchen sink with my hands in cold water and forgot the potatoes entirely. Mother says I'm turning into a moonstruck heron. Perhaps I am. Half the village has been out to look at the new sign over Hollis's shop since Tuesday, and I am ashamed to say I've been twice.

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It's iron, painted black, the letters swelling and looping into one another as though they were grown rather than made. M, then R, then A, then two Bs stacked like a pair of hands, and a second M dropping away at the bottom. Mr Hollis says the smith in Halifax charged him more for the vines than for the letters. Under the scrolls a red heart hangs on its own wire, slightly crooked, and Frank Dunning swears he didn't bend it on purpose. Mrs Hollis told everyone it was for the baby, but she has been wrong about babies before.

Your letter came Thursday. I read it twice standing by the postbox, then put it in the tea caddy with the old ration books, because I can't bring myself to answer it yet. You asked me to tell you honestly whether Father has asked after you. He hasn't. He stood under that sign yesterday with his cap in his hands and read the letters aloud, slowly, one at a time, and at the last M he stopped and touched the iron as though checking it was still warm.

I'll post this tomorrow with the pressed nasturtium tucked inside. Come home at Whitsun if you can, and bring the thin green coat. Your loving sister, Edie.