Colour tattoo in botanical style of a sunflower, ferns, a dark songbird, a moth and autumn leaves running down the side of a bare back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sunflower, fern and moth down the back

Botanical · Back · Mixed · Photo

A large sunflower with orange petals and a dark centre sits high on the back, with fern fronds and small white wildflowers around it. Below, a dark bird, a tan moth and brown oak leaves trail down towards the ribs, with bold outlines and soft shading. Warm orange and tan tones contrast with the greys and black of the bird and leaves, against a dark background.

Botanical Back Ribs Sunflower Fern Wildflower Bird Moth Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The fiddler at Sallow Cross hall played the same three tunes all autumn, and by the third week of September the boards were worn pale in a ring under the lamps. Nobody asked Ada Penrose where she had come from. She arrived with a sunflower head wrapped in a damp sack, set it on the sill by the stove, and it turned its face to the lamp all night as though someone had told it where the light was.

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The miller's son, Joss Harrow, had a bad leg and no patience for slow tunes. He said the sunflower was a proud thing that wanted all the sky for itself. Ada said it only wanted what the sky had put in it, and she danced him round the stove until he stopped grumbling. Her mother had grown up in the oak wood past the mill, and she knew the old saying that a moth in the hall means someone will walk out before the last tune.

On the last Saturday of the month the door was propped for air, and a grey-brown moth came in. It went to the lamp, then to the sunflower, then to Joss's sleeve, where it sat with its wings open like a page. The fiddler stopped mid-bar. Joss did not move. Ada lifted the moth on one finger, carried it to the door, and let the cold air take it.

Joss followed her out, and the whole hall heard the fiddle start again without him. He came back before the last tune with a fern frond in each hand and a face like he had been running. The sunflower was still on the sill, its face turned to the empty doorway, and nobody thought to move it.