Black and grey realism tattoo of a lily wrapped around a treble clef, sitting on the upper back near the shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Treble clef and lily on a shoulder

Realism · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A treble clef forms the base of the design, with a realistic lily in full bloom sitting over its lower curl. The flower has soft grey shading, fine petal detail and a darker shadow cast behind the clef. The image is a close, slightly angled shot of the upper back with the tattoo centred in the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The frost got into the hall last Tuesday and I had to sit with the piano lid up so the hammers wouldn't stick. Dad says the damp is worse than it's been since the flood, and the lambing pen is still full of straw that won't dry. I've been playing the old hymn book for the kettle, the one with Mum's pencil marks, because nobody else is left to tell me I'm flat.

I found the lily bulbs in the cellar, the ones she kept in a paper bag marked TIGER in her round hand. They'd sprouted little white hooks, sad and pale, so I potted them in the corner by the range. Nothing much will come of them in February, but I talked to them the way she did, and I swear the nearest one leant toward the window when I sang the alto line of "Abide With Me".

Hector from the next farm came round with a load of feed and asked after you. I said you were still in Leeds playing for the dance halls, which is more than I can say for my own fingers. He looked at the open book on the piano and tapped the tall swirl printed at the top of the stave, the one like a question mark that's been sat on. He said it looked like a snail's ear. I said it was the key that tells you where the whole tune sits, and Mum never once got it wrong.

Come home at Easter. The bulbs should be up by then, and you can tell me whether I've been flat all along.

Love, Jess

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