Neo-traditional colour tattoo of a skull with red butterflies, lace and beaded chains on the upper arm and shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Skull with butterflies and beads on upper arm

Neo-trad · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A large skull is shown in profile with red butterflies resting on its top and left side, a lace panel across the crown, and strings of beads and drop jewels hanging below. The skull is shaded in greys with warm gold and red highlights, and a small rose sits near the jaw. The design fills the upper arm, with the background softly out of focus.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the skull came back from Mr Harrowby's workshop on Tuesday wrapped in a lace handkerchief, and I have not stopped looking at it since. He wanted the crown covered in the Honiton panel your mother never finished, and I counted every bead on those strings twice before I let them go.

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Mr Harrowby says the red butterflies are there because the gentleman who commissioned it wants something that flutters over the end of things. I told him butterflies don't keep to commissions. Last summer I pinned four to the blotter for the drawing and two of them lifted off the moment I turned my back. He laughed and said the skull could hold them instead. The jet drops swing from the jaw like a chandelier in a cold room, and when the gaslight catches the gold edge, the whole thing looks almost warm.

The rose was my idea. Nobody asked for it. I tucked it low by the teeth, where the paint thins, so it looks as though someone had left it there out of kindness. Mr Harrowby called it sentimental. I said it was accurate, and he let it stand, which is the closest he comes to admitting I'm right.

Come on Sunday and see it before it goes to Edgbaston. I have kept the spare drop on the windowsill beside your thimble. If you find a length of fine wire in your sewing box, bring that too. Yours, Hetty.

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