Colour neo-traditional tattoo of a shaded skull with red butterflies, black lace and beaded chains on the upper arm and shoulder.

Skull with butterflies and lace on upper arm

Neo-trad · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A realistically shaded human skull is shown in profile, with red butterflies perched on its crown and side, black lace draped over the top and a beaded jewelled headpiece with a pendant stone. Strings of pearl-like beads and drop pendants hang from the skull, and a small pale rose sits near the jaw. The tattoo is rendered in rich reds, greens and golds with a dark outline, and it fills the frame of an upper arm and shoulder against a dark background.

Neo-trad Realism Upper arm Skull Butterfly Lace Bead Chain Pearl Pendant Rose Jewel

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

On the morning of the wedding the butterflies came down the lane before anyone else was awake. Red ones, the size of a hand, settling on the wall of the mill and the rails of the bridge. Old Hester said it was a poor omen and a good one, depending on who was counting.

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The bride had the headpiece from the pedlar at Crane's Cross, a black lace cap with a grey stone at the brow and strings of pearl that swung to her knees. He had asked nothing for it except that she never wear it at a graveside. She had laughed. Her mother pinned it on her at the church door, and the beads knocked softly together as she walked up the aisle, like a set of small bells keeping time.

At the feast a butterfly landed on her crown, then another on her shoulder, and the whole hall went quiet. Tam, who had never been afraid of anything in his life except the miller's temper, put down his cup. Hester stood with one hand on the back of a chair and said, "You'll have the dance now, girl, if you want to keep him."

Ysolde walked out to the yard with the lace in her hands and hung it over the gatepost, where the wheel turned slow in the dark. The butterflies lifted and followed her there. In the morning the pearls were still on the post, and Tam, coming out with the bread, found her sitting on the step with a red wing in her palm, laughing at him for looking so pale.