Black and grey photograph of a realistic-style cluster of three roses with leaves tattooed on the forearm near the elbow.

Three roses on a forearm

Botanical · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of a forearm with a cluster of three roses at different angles, with dark leaves filling the gaps between them. The linework is fine and the petals are shaded with soft grey tones and darker accents for depth. The arm is bent and the tattoo sits in the centre of the frame against a fluffy grey textured fabric.

Botanical Realism Forearm Rose Leaves Flower

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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 wholesale market at Nine Elms was still sweating diesel when the lorry from Kenya came in, and I got the job of counting the roses before anyone else touched them. Four hundred stems, boxed in grey paper, every bud sealed tight as a fist. The good ones have petals that look pressed into place by someone who took their time over it.

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Mr Okonedo, who runs the cold room, told me to look at the leaves first. Dark and glossy, the colour of wet slate under a streetlamp, because the leaves tell you whether a bloom has been out in the heat too long. I said that sounded like something you'd say about people. He laughed and said flowers were easier to read.

I pulled three out for myself, the ones that had opened a little at the edges, their outer petals curled back as if they were about to tell a secret. I carried them home on the 2 bus wrapped in newspaper and stood them in a jam jar on the windowsill above the launderette. By morning the shadows they threw across the kitchen wall were soft and grey, and the leaves had gone darker still.

Come down on Saturday and see them. They're the only three things in London I've managed not to lose, and I'd like someone else to tell me they're still good.