Realistic colour tattoo of wild roses and red rose hips with green leaves on the outer thigh, set against a soft orange background.

Wild rose and rose hips on a thigh

Botanical · Thigh · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows two wild roses, one pale pink and white with a golden centre and one deeper pink, with clusters of red rose hips and green serrated leaves. The petals and foliage are rendered in soft, detailed shading that gives them a realistic, painterly finish. Warm orange wash behind the motif sits on the skin, and the design wraps diagonally across the outer thigh.

Botanical Realism Thigh Rose Flower Leaves Berry

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The wild roses came out along the Ouse the week we tied up at Naburn, all at once, as if someone had told them the lock-keeper was coming. Pale ones at the water's edge with yellow middles full of bees, and a darker pink lot up on the bank that looked, Dad would have said, like they'd been out in the rain too long. I've been picking the hips since. They go from green to orange to a red that looks painted on, and the hedges are full of them.

Mr Halloran at the chandlery says you must wait for the first frost before you pick them, or they go to mush in the pan. I didn't wait. I got the big glass jar from the galley cupboard, the one with the cracked lid, and boiled up three pounds of them with sugar and too much water. The cabin smells like a fruit shop now. Ruth from the next boat says it will taste of sweet tea and sore throats, which is what Mum used to say about everything.

The barge creaks all night when the wind gets under the tarpaulin, and I lie awake listening and thinking about the Thursday you missed the train. I haven't forgiven you. I have, though, saved you a jar.

It's on the shelf above the sink with a label in my best capitals. I'll post it when we reach Selby. Eat it on toast in the cold, and think of the towpath, and of me standing in the hedge with my sleeves full of thorns.

Love, Jo