Neo-trad style butterfly tattoo in teal, blue and purple with black outlines, sitting on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Teal and purple butterfly on upper arm

Neo-trad · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A butterfly with outstretched wings, its antennae curling upwards, is tattooed on the upper arm. The wings are filled with teal, blue and purple, with brown-grey shading, bold black outlines and round eye-like markings. The design is shown close up against plain skin and a grey top.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz,

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The bus put me off at the Marrowby crossing at six, and the driver didn't wait to see if I'd cope. There's nothing out here but the road, a fuel shed with its shutters down, and a sky so big it makes you feel like a rumour. I've walked four miles with your old rucksack and the postcard you sent from Fez still folded in my pocket.

Yesterday a butterfly landed on my hand at the water tank. Its wings were the colour of a swimming pool at dusk, teal going to blue at the edges, with purple patches like the lamp in Mum's window. Each round spot had a ring inside and a violet pupil, as if the wings were watching me. I know how that sounds. Mrs Halloran at the shed says they come up from the wadi after rain, and there hasn't been rain since the spring you left.

I haven't told anyone the real reason I came. I want to find the cabin where we used to camp, the one with the blue shutters you painted the summer Dad went quiet. Ask anyone at the crossing and they point at the highway and laugh.

If you get this, come out. Bring the good torch. The butterfly went north along the fence line this morning, slow and deliberate, as if it knew the way. I followed it as far as the cattle grid. I'm writing this on the bench there now, and I can't tell whether I'm waiting for you or for it.

Love, Nadia

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