Realistic colour tattoo of a white water lily, green lily pads and an orange koi with ripples, across a person's upper back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Water lily and koi on upper back

Realism · Back · Colour · Photo

A large white and pale yellow water lily with a pink centre sits at the middle of the design, surrounded by green lily pads. An orange and red koi carp swims beneath it among grey pebbles, with concentric ripples rendered across the water. The soft shading and layered petals give a photorealistic effect, and the composition spreads across the shoulder blade area.

Realism Botanical Back Lotus Koi Fish Flower Water

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The council have finally sent their letter about the pond, the one with the word "unsafe" underlined twice, and your grandad would have framed it and hung it over the kettle. I've put it in the drawer with the seed packets instead. The koi are still here, all five of them, though Dolly the big orange one has got fat on the bread I'm not supposed to give her. She came up under the lily on Tuesday as if she wanted to show me something, and she was right. The white bloom opened on the very morning the letter came, the petals pale as cream at the edges and flushed pink in the middle like a cheek that's been out in the wind.

I sat on the upturned bucket by the rockery with my tea going cold and counted the rings her mouth made when she turned under the surface. Four rings, then five. Grandad used to say you could tell a fish's mood by the ripples, and mine was clearly the sort that wanted feeding. The pebbles you brought back from Morecambe are still on the bottom, rolled smooth and grey, and the frogs have started treating them like a bed.

I'm not going to fill it in. I've told the council a man from the allotments is coming to look at the liner, which is a lie, and I'll be the one who has to explain it. Come up at the weekend. Bring a bag of the proper pellets, not the cheap ones, and we'll sit by the water and see whether she surfaces for you too.

Love, Nan