Traditional style colour tattoo of a red and blue sewing thread spool with a needle and white flowers and green leaves, on the skin of the upper body.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sewing spools and needle with flowers

Traditional · Other · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows two wooden thread spools, one red and one blue, with orange end caps and a silver needle threaded through the centre. Two white five-petal flowers and green leaves frame the spools, with thin red linework tracing curves around them. Bold black outlines and smooth colour shading give it a classic traditional look, and the design fills the frame against a plain area of skin.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ida,

Keep reading

The big top came down on Tuesday, though nobody said it aloud. Mr Calloway had the canvas folded by lamplight, and the ringmaster's red coat hung over the wagon rail like a flag nobody wanted to salute. I have been sewing since dawn, mending what is left of the wardrobe, because somebody has to and the wages still come on Fridays, most weeks.

Do you remember the trapeze girl, Marguerite? Her sleeves split every night on the second swing, and I would sit on the upturned crate with my tin of pins and stitch her back into the sequins before the interval. Last month she left for a carnival in Hull with a man who sells candyfloss and promises. I kept her spare thread. Red, from the spool with the chipped orange cap, because she said it made her feel brave. Blue for the clowns, who never tear anything and still come to me.

The needle slipped on Thursday and went straight through my thumb. I bled onto a cloth printed with white blossoms, and I laughed until Calloway came to see what the matter was. He asked me to repair the silk banner that reads Calloway and Sons Grand Spectacular, the one with the two boys he never had. I told him I would fix it, but the stitches would show.

Come up in the spring if you can. Bring your own needles. There are three spools left, and I am saving the red one for the last show, whenever that turns out to be.

Yours, Nell

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