Colour tattoo on a calf of a pink and a blue butterfly above ribbon banners with script lettering, in a traditional style.

Two butterflies with name banners on a calf

Traditional · Calf · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo shows a pink butterfly and a blue butterfly, each resting on a curled ribbon banner that carries a name in black cursive script. The outlines are bold and black, with soft grey shading on the wings and under the banners. Pink and pale blue fill the butterflies and ribbons against the skin, and the design sits diagonally across the calf.

Traditional Calf Butterfly Ribbon Banner Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Four o'clock and the flour is still settling in the sacks. I am writing this on the back of a delivery docket because the ledger is wet from the sink, and because Dilys always said a baker should record the day before the day gets a chance to argue. Today it argued early. The sugar work for Mrs Cardew's christening cake came out of the cold room sweating, and both butterflies slid off their wires.

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Ruth and I spent an hour on them with a palette knife and a bowl of warm water. The pink one kept its wings. The blue one lost a whole forewing, and Ruth swore at it in Welsh, which she says doesn't count as swearing if the cake is still going out.

The banners were the real trouble. Two strips of fondant, one rose and one pale ice blue, curled over the top tier like ribbon off a parcel, with the names piped in black royal icing. Ruth has the steadier hand, so she did the letters while I did the curls. Halfway through she asked whether we should swap which name went on which ribbon, since the blue looked better under the name with the long tail. I said the cake was booked for the name on the card, not the one we liked the look of, and she laughed at me for being fussy about a cake nobody would eat until Sunday.

At six the shutter went up and the first van idled outside with its lights on. The cake sat under the glass in the front window, the pink wing mended with a dab of icing, the blue one standing on its banner as if it had only just landed. A man pressed his face to the glass and said the butterflies looked real. I didn't tell him we had nearly lost one to the warm room. Some things look best when they seem ready to lift off the board and leave.