Black tribal-style sea turtle design with spiral shell markings and a small pink flower on its head, shown on a plain white background.

Spiral sea turtle with pink flower

Mixed · Flash

A bold black sea turtle design built from curling spirals and tapering flourishes, with the body, flippers and head outlined in solid black shapes. A small pink five-petal flower sits on top of the head, the only colour in the image. The turtle is centred on a plain light grey to white background with generous empty space around it.

Sea turtle Turtle Spiral Flower Tribal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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You will not believe what Mrs Ferris wore to the Saturday dance at the Marine Ballroom in Saltcombe. A green frock, and a pink hibiscus pinned in her hair that she had brought back from her sister's glasshouse in Penzance. The band played the Gay Gordons twice because Eddie Pask had lost his place in the sheet music and would not admit it. Dad danced with Miss Lowry, who has never once stepped on anyone's feet, and he looked almost pleased about it.

Something else happened, and I want to tell you before Mum does and gets it wrong. Old Harry Quick came in late with a sack over his shoulder. Inside was a sea turtle he had hauled out of the nets off Gull Point, not dead, just tired, its shell patterned in those swirling curls you have seen on the kitchen tiles. Everyone wanted to touch it. Harry set it down on the parquet floor and it went round in a slow circle, the same spiral as the tiles, as though it were following the music.

I'll keep the rest for when you're home, but I can say the turtle went back to the water before the last waltz, carried out by the girls in their Sunday shoes. Harry says it will find its way to the reef it came from. I believe him. Write soon, and tell me what the ship's cook has done to the porridge this time.

Love, Ada