Black and red tree of life tattoo with spreading branches, roots and a central swirling knot across a person's upper back.

Tree of life tattoo on upper back

Botanical · Back · Mixed · Photo

A tree with bare, forking branches rises from a central black swirl and spirals outward, with long roots spreading below. The linework is bold and solid black, with the roots shaded in a finer, feathered style. Small red buds and leaves are scattered along the branches against the pale skin, and the tattoo is centred on the upper back with the top of the head and hair visible at the top of the frame.

Botanical Back Tree Tree of life Root Branches Bud Leaves Spiral Knot

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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 Tom, The sycamore on Hallam Street is coming down by Friday, the council man says, and last night I went out with a torch at two, in my nightdress and Dad's old boots, to see what the storm had done. The pavement had lifted where the roots pushed up under the flags, and there they were, thick as my wrist and knotted together just beneath the railings, the way the trunk is knotted at its base where the two halves grew round each other. Mr Okafor from number nine told me the tree was planted the spring his wife came home from the hospital, and that the knot was the reason it survived three gales and the coal lorry that backed into it in 1968.

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I stood there longer than I should have. The city was quiet except for a cat somewhere and the hiss of the canal, and the bare branches were black against a sky the colour of wet slate. Then I saw the buds, tiny and red as the brake lights on the number 14, and I thought of how nothing else on that street has the nerve to flower this early. I could not sleep after that, so I wrapped a cutting in a damp copy of the demolition notice and a tea towel, and I am writing this on the back of the same paper while the kettle goes cold.

I have decided to plant it on the allotment by the lock, where the ground is soft and the crane operators cannot reach it. It will not be the same tree. Roots do not travel well, and I know that better than anyone. But the knot will come with it, if I am careful, and the red buds will push out when the spring comes round again.

Come Sunday and bring the spade. Bring the good one, not the one you left in my shed.