Black and grey botanical tattoo of a sunflower with a curling stem and leaves on the upper arm, shaded in a realistic style.

Sunflower and stem on an upper arm

Botanical · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A sunflower head faces towards the upper left of the frame, with shaded petals and a dotted, textured centre. A slender stem runs down the arm with heart-shaped leaves, a closed bud and a curled tendril at the base. The linework is clean and the shading is soft and graduated, with no colour ink.

Botanical Realism Upper arm Sunflower Stem Leaves Bud Tendril Flower

Find an artist for this

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

Dear Nell, the sunflowers along the orchard wall have all gone over at once, every head bent west as if they're waiting for a van that isn't coming. Dad says it's the heat and the dry August. I say they've been watching the gate since June for Uncle Ray, and now they've given up on him the way the rest of us have.

Keep reading

The pickers finished the Bramleys on Thursday. Mum strung the last crates on the back of the tractor and I walked behind them with a bucket of windfalls, kicking through the grass where the leaves have turned the colour of old pennies. There's one bud left on the stem by the gate, tight and green as a knuckle. It hasn't opened all summer and Dad won't let me cut it. He says some things are only ready when they're ready, which is what he says when he doesn't know either.

I found the curl at the bottom of the stem this morning, where the tendril has wound itself round the fence post as if it means to hold on through the winter. I pressed it between the pages of the seed catalogue so you'll find it when you come home. Bring the good secateurs. I've stopped waiting on Ray, but I've decided the bud is ours to see through.

Love, Pip