Realistic colour tattoo of two orange lilies with dark shadowing on the side of a torso, above the waistband of jeans.

Two lilies on the side of the ribs

Realism · Ribs · Colour · Photo

Two open orange lilies with yellow and pale peach petals overlap in a vertical cluster on the side of the torso. The petals and stamens are shaded with soft gradients and dark cast shadows that give a raised, three-dimensional effect against the skin. Warm yellows and browns dominate the colour palette, with small speckles on the petals and a glossy sheen on the skin from the lighting.

Realism Botanical Ribs Lily Flower Petal Stamen

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the lorry wouldn't start again this morning, so we've been sitting on the field at Hadleigh since Tuesday with the elephant asleep against the cookhouse and nobody quite willing to say the word closed. Mr Vance has taken the poster of the flying Rossi sisters down from the ticket booth and folded it into his waistcoat. I saw him do it. He didn't look at me.

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You'll remember the orange lilies by the bottom gate, the ones Mum planted in tin buckets the summer we came over from Ostend. Half of them died in the frost, but the old speckled ones that lean out over the tent pegs have come back every year regardless. I've been cutting them for the ring girls, three stems each, and the audience used to gasp at how big they looked under the lamps. Silly, really. They're only flowers.

Yesterday Dolores asked me to stop. She said the stamens were getting on her nerves, all that pollen on the costume, and I should take the lot to the churchyard. I didn't. I dug the last bulb out of the mud this morning, wrapped it in a damp handkerchief and put it in my coat.

If the Hadleigh man lets us stay past Sunday I'll plant it by the caravan. If he doesn't, I'll find a window box in Leeds and you can pretend you didn't notice me bringing a flower onto the train. Your loving sister, Nell