Black and grey botanical tattoo of three roses with leaves and buds across the outer thigh, drawn with dark outlines and soft shading.

Three roses and leaves on a thigh

Botanical · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

Three roses at different stages of bloom run diagonally down the outer thigh, with leaves and small buds filling the spaces between them. The dark outlines are fine and even, with soft shading inside the petals and hatched lines along the leaf veins. The tattoo is entirely black and grey, and the arrangement follows the curve of the thigh.

Botanical Thigh Rose Leaves Bud 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 Dot,

Keep reading

The three roses on the south wall of Hollins Cottage have finally come good, and I've been out with the secateurs every morning since Tuesday because the wedding is Saturday and Ruth Tanner has asked for every bloom we can spare. The old pale one at the top is blown already, papery at the edges, the way you liked them. The middle one is just opening, all folded heart, its petals peeling back like a girl taking off her gloves. The bud at the bottom is still tight as a fist. I told Ruth it would be ready on the day, and it will be, because Dad planted all three the summer you left and never once let them go thirsty.

Ruth's young man, Callum, came up the lane yesterday with his cap in his hands and asked whether we could spare a few leaves to press into the invitations. I said he could have the lot if he moved the ladder. He laughed and said nobody had warned him the ladder was the hard part. We stood there a while looking at the leaves, which are glossy on top and ruled underneath with lines as fine as a draughtsman's nib, and I thought of Dad with his magnifier, counting the veins before the village show.

I'll bring a jar of the middle rose up to you on Sunday, if the roads hold. It won't last the drive, but then nothing that smells like that ever does, and that is rather the point of it.

Love, Mavis