Fine line black botanical tattoo of a small branch with buds on the back of a person's neck, above a striped top.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small branch tattoo on the nape

Fine line · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A small sprig or branch with a few side shoots and tiny buds is drawn in thin black linework on the back of the neck. The lines are delicate and mostly even, with light shading in places. The ink is the only colour, and the tattoo sits near the centre of the frame against plain skin, with a cream top and a blurred pale wall and plant behind.

Fine line Botanical Neck Branch Sprig Twig Bud Leaves

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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

The cutting survived the Bay of Biscay, which is more than I can say for the ship's biscuits. I wrapped it in wet muslin and wedged it behind the spice tins where the galley stove keeps the air close, and every morning before the cook's bell I checked whether the buds had opened. Mr Pardoe the bosun says a thing that won't stand a gale has no business at sea. I told him it had stood more than he had.

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Mother, you will want to know how it came to be aboard. It was a sprig from the blackthorn hedge behind Gill's farm at Wickham, the one you sent me past for eggs. I cut it on the morning we sailed, with the quay boys shouting and the gulls thick over the rigging. Three side shoots, a fork where the wind had snapped the top, and four buds still shut tight like something holding its breath.

The steward had me throw it over the side twice. The second time I did not. I tucked it into the flour bin, then the tin of cloves, then back behind the tins. Now we are off the Azores, the sea has gone soft and blue, and this morning the first bud split white. I had nobody to show it to but the potato peeler, so I showed him.

I am posting this from Ponta Delgada, where I will drop it in the box before the ship turns for home. I have pressed a sprig of the wood flat in the back of this page, so you can tell me whether it is the same hedge. If it has withered by the time you open it, know that it lasted longer than I expected, and that I did not throw it over.