Black and grey realism rose with leaves, thorny stem and a small script word on the side of a person's ribs.

Shaded rose with leaves on the side ribs

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A shaded rose with a thorny stem and several leaves runs up the side of the torso, with a small script word beside the flower. The petals and leaves are rendered with soft grey shading and fine detail, with dark outlines defining the stem. The tattoo sits against a white top and dark trousers, with a bed and blue bedding visible in the background.

Realism Botanical Ribs Rose Leaves Stem Thorn Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The snow had sealed the Crook and Lantern since Tuesday, and Nell Ormerod had counted the coal scuttle four times before the carrier's cart finally failed to come up the lane. The only guest left was Abel Pryce, a seed merchant with frost in his moustache, who sat by the range turning a dented tin over in his hands as if it might open by itself.

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He told her about the rose on the lid. His late father had bred it from a briar that grew against a Kendal churchyard wall, a grey-pink bloom shaded like pencil on cartridge paper, the petals curling in on themselves as if keeping a secret. It would only flower where the frost had been hard enough to make it stubborn. He pulled out a cutting wrapped in damp sacking and laid it across her palm. The thorns caught her thumb, and a bead of blood sat there, bright against the grey.

The label inside the lid had two words in faded ink, Lee and then a question mark, and Nell understood the tin was not for a customer at all. Abel had been carrying it for years, from one winter inn to the next, looking for the one person who would know the handwriting.

In the morning the ploughman cleared the lane. Nell wrapped the cutting again, tucked it inside her coat, and walked it down to the village in the thin light. Along the stone wall of the churchyard, the briars had put out their first leaves, pale and unbroken, catching the sun like something drawn in pencil.