Black and grey fine line tattoo of two peony flowers stacked down the upper thigh of a woman kneeling on a cream blanket.

Two peony flowers on a thigh

Fine line · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows two large peony flowers tattooed one above the other on the outer upper thigh of a woman kneeling on a cream blanket. The linework is fine and detailed, with soft grey shading in the petals and dark accents where the petals overlap. The composition is top-down, with the black dress and studded hem framing the tattoo against the pale fabric beneath.

Fine line Botanical Thigh Peony Flower Petal

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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 Nell, the peonies at Hollins came out a fortnight late this year, which Mr Pardoe blames on the wet March. I have been drawing them every morning before the dew burns off, sitting on the upturned crate by the glasshouse with my board across my knees. You would laugh at me. The petals will not hold still for a single minute, and by ten they have opened another ring, so the drawing I began at seven is already a lie by the time I finish it.

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Mr Pardoe wants the plates for the catalogue by the end of the month, two blooms side by side, one just cracking and one blown wide. I have given up trying to draw the whole flower at once. Instead I work the outer petals in graphite, very light, the way Mother taught us to build a shadow with a dozen small strokes rather than one heavy one. Where a petal folds over its neighbour I press darker, and that is the only place I allow myself black. The rest I leave to the paper.

Last Tuesday an ant walked out from the bud I was copying and carried a grain of sugar across my margin as if I were furniture. I let it go. Ants and peonies, Mr Pardoe says, have an arrangement: the buds give off a sweetness the ants feed on, and in return the ants cling to the bud and help it open. I did not believe him until I watched it happen. I have decided to put the ant in the plate. Mr Pardoe will object. I will tell him it is the only honest thing in the picture.

Come up on the Saturday train if you can. The big bloom on the east wall is nearly ready, and I want you to see it before I have spoiled it with my pencil.