Two hands showing traditional red rose tattoos with green leaves and chain drapes ending in a heart pendant on the back of each hand, with script on the fingers.

Traditional roses with chain drapes on hands

Traditional · Hand · Mixed · Photo

Two hands are shown from the back, each with a traditional-style red rose tattoo with green leaves and black outlines. Fine chains with a small heart pendant drape from the roses across the knuckles and fingers, and script lettering runs along the fingers. The roses are rendered in bold colour with shading, and the composition is close and centred on the hands against a dark background.

Traditional Hand Rose Leaves Chain Heart Pendant Script Lettering Hand

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marguerite, the bus from Barstow dropped me at a petrol station where the pumps have been painted the same faded turquoise since before you and I met. I am writing this on the bonnet of a Vauxhall that belongs to a man named Dessie, who says he will drive me the last forty miles if I stop asking him about the weather. The road out here is nothing but white dust and a fence that leans whichever way the wind does.

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I have something to show you when I get home, and you will not believe me until you see it. Dessie's cousin runs a shop behind the bakery, the one with the hand-lettered sign and the bell that sticks. He did my hands on Tuesday. Two roses, bold as a sunset, red petals gone dark at the heart, leaves like wet green ink, and a fine silver chain running off them over the knuckles with a little heart swinging at the end. He made me sit through three hours of it without once asking me if I was all right, which I think was a kindness. Words are running along my fingers too, though I will not tell you what they say until you have seen them in person.

Dessie just honked. I have to go before he decides the road has got more interesting. Save me the good chair by the window and keep the kettle warm. When I hold my hands up in the lamplight, I want you to tell me the roses look like they belong to me. I think they finally do.

All my love, Nell