Colour tattoo of a vintage sewing machine with a pink rose and scrollwork on a person's upper back, set against an orange sunburst.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sewing machine and rose on upper back

Neo-trad · Back · Colour · Photo

A vintage sewing machine sits at the centre of the design, with a pink rose to its left and curled scrollwork beneath it. An orange and yellow sunburst radiates behind the machine. The machine is shaded in pale blue and grey with defined outlines, and the rose has pink petals and green leaves. The tattoo fills most of the upper back, with the subject's shoulder straps framing the design.

Neo-trad Traditional Back Rose Sunburst Scrollwork Swirl

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Mum, the machine arrived on Thursday, crated the way Mr Pryce promised, and I had it humming by teatime. It's a Singer with the gold lettering worn off the arm, and when I lifted the cover the bobbin case was still wound with someone else's grey thread. I didn't pick it out. I thought of you saying a machine remembers the hands that fed it, and I laughed at myself for it, then kept the grey on anyway.

Keep reading

The shop on Castle Street has a window that faces the sun all afternoon, so by four the light comes through the dresses on the rail and throws orange across the floor. Mrs Hadley's girls come in Saturdays to collect their hems. Tilly Ashby brought in her brother's demob suit and asked whether I could make it fit a boy who has stopped being a boy. I said I would try, and I did, taking in the shoulders until the cloth stopped looking like a borrowed coat.

I've pinned a rose to the corner of the mirror, a red one from the Hadleys' garden, going brown at the edges now. It seemed a shame to let it go without a use. Tilly asked me this morning whether I'd still be here at Christmas. I told her the machine is paid for and the sun is in the right window, and that was all the answer I had.

Write again soon and tell Dad the hem on his good trousers is fine. Your loving daughter, Edie.