Woman in a dark grey band t-shirt showing colourful traditional rose and floral tattoos on her upper arms and forearms.

Tattooed arms in a band t-shirt

Traditional · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A woman in a dark grey t-shirt with a hot air balloon and lettering print stands with both arms visible. Her right arm carries a bold traditional rose and a cluster of red flowers, and her left arm shows a green and blue design with wave-like shapes. The tattoos use solid outlines and saturated colour, with the arms photographed against a plain white background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dearest Maud,

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You will not believe what Uncle Ted did at Sunday's wedding. We were all under the marquee at Cragside Farm, the bride's mother fussing over the cake, when he stood up with his glass and announced he'd had a balloon fetched from Lymington. Nobody had asked him to. It came down over the hedge at half past four, orange and brown like a ripe conker, and the vicar had to hold the basket steady while the best man climbed in with a hamper of sandwiches.

Ted sailed with the merchant navy for thirty years before he ever held a gas cylinder, and he has always said a badly tied rope kills more men than any storm. So he checked every knot himself, muttering to the balloon as if it were a difficult horse. He had his good jacket sleeve pushed back, and the old roses on his forearm showed red against the sky. Mum still says he got them in Valparaiso before she would let him near the house.

The balloon lifted at six, slow and sure, and drifted over the cliff where the gulls were rising. Nobody spoke. Then the bride, who has never once cried in front of me, said quietly that it was the loveliest thing she had ever seen. The groom took her hand, and Ted pretended he had something in his eye.

When they landed in a ploughed field two miles off, Ted was first out with the rope. He tied the basket to the gate post with a bowline, looked up at the sunset, and said, "Ready for the next one, sweetheart," to nobody in particular. I think he meant the marriage. I think he meant the sea.

Write soon. Your loving sister, Nell

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