Traditional style tattoo on a stomach showing a red rose, a teal and orange moth, two roses below and daggers at the sides, with script lettering above.

Traditional rose, moth and dagger on abdomen

Traditional · Other · Mixed · Photo

A close view of a midriff covered in traditional tattoos, centred on a red rose with brown shaded leaves above a teal, orange and red moth with antennae. Two red roses sit at the lower corners of the moth, and two orange and teal dagger shapes flank the sides of the abdomen. Bold black outlines and flat solid fills dominate, with cursive black and grey script lettering across the top and a navel piercing visible.

Traditional Other Rose Moth Dagger Script Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Eli,

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The moth came back again last night, the big one with the teal wings and the orange edges, and it settled on the lamp over my machine and stayed there until the bulb went cold. I have decided it is you. Mrs Pryce says it is just a moth, but she also says the sea air will sort out your chest, so I do not put much weight on her opinions.

The knife act at the Tower Ballroom has a new girl now, Pearl Haddow, who stands against a board painted with a red rose and a ring of leaves gone brown at the edges. Sonny Rourke throws the daggers so close to her ears that the audience gasps in all the wrong places. Pearl told me the trick is never to look at the blade, only at the spot you want it to land. I asked her what happens if you look at the wrong spot. She laughed and said you go home with a hole in your hat.

Mr Cardew says the boarding house will be sold before Easter, so I have been packing the good plates in newspaper and wondering where the moth will go. I have left the back window open a crack. If you are ever on the north shore with your pockets empty, come up the stairs quietly and you will find the kettle on and a stool by the lamp.

Your loving sister, Nell