Black flash design of a tree of life with spreading roots and branches, enclosed in an interlaced Celtic knotwork circle.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tree of life in a Celtic knot circle

Blackwork · Black and grey · Flash

A solid black tree silhouette with a thick trunk, spreading branches and roots sits at the centre of a circular frame. The outer ring is filled with interlaced Celtic knotwork, with some leaves drawn into the branches. The image is a single flat black design on a white background, with no shading or colour.

Blackwork Tree of life Celtic knot Root Branches Leaves Circle

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ivy,

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The big top came down on Tuesday in Ashford, and Mr Coyle wept into his hat while the lads folded canvas like it was a flag at a funeral. You'll say I should have written sooner. I didn't have a stamp until Mrs Pardoe's husband gave me one from his drawer, so forgive the state of this paper.

The ring is still there, though. They left the sawdust circle in the field because nobody could be bothered to shovel it, and this morning I walked out and found a sapling pushing up through the old centre pole stump, the one Grandad sank in 1961 so the riggers had something to tie guy ropes to. Nobody planted it. A jay must have dropped an acorn in the sawdust. It is no taller than my forearm and already has its roots gripping the rotten oak like it means to keep the place.

I thought about what Coyle said when he sold the elephant, that a show is only a circle you draw in the grass and agree to keep. Well, the circle's here whether we keep it or not. I cut a square of turf, set the sapling in it with my own hands, and left a bucket of water beside it, which is more care than I gave the lion.

Write when you can. Tell me if you still have the brass lamps. Tell me if the Seabrook girls are married. And tell Coyle the tree is his now, since he's too proud to come and look at it himself.

Love, Nell