Two black and grey butterfly tattoos sit on a woman's upper back near the shoulder blade, photographed from behind with her hair pulled up.

Two butterflies on upper back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A woman is photographed from behind, with her face out of view and one hand raised into her hair. A larger butterfly sits beside the shoulder blade with a smaller one placed lower and to the left, both drawn with bold outlines and detailed wing patterns. The tattoos are rendered in black and grey with soft shading, against a warm, low-contrast background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Dad, the moth got into the lobby again last night, a big orange and black one, the kind you'd have pinned under glass if you were still the sort of man who pinned things. I didn't chase it. Mr Okafor on the third floor was asleep with his door propped open, the corridor lights were down to their two-in-the-morning dimness, so I just stood by the revolving door and watched it circle the chandelier as if it had a job to finish.

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You'd like the city at this hour. Everything bold and black against the wet pavement, the bins, the bus shelter on Park Row with its one bulb buzzing. I've started drawing again in the back office on the ledger paper, outlines first, then the veins, then the little dusting of pattern you taught me to leave for last. Nobody makes wings that way anymore. They all want them filled in solid.

The smaller one came in on Thursday and sat on my name badge for twenty minutes while I finished a check-in. I thought of you telling me they can taste with their feet. I didn't cry, I want you to know that. I just wrote the time in the night log, half past four, and the date, the way you would.

Last night I held the door open and it went out past the taxi rank, lifting straight up into the sodium glow over the station, black and orange and then hardly anything at all. I'm not writing to ask you back. I'm writing because the light's still on in the office, and someone should know I can still see them.

Love, Nell

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