Black and grey fine line tattoo of a woman's face framed by flowers, a lace-like headdress and arrows, across the upper back of a woman seen from behind.

Woman portrait with flowers on a back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A large tattoo covers the upper back of a woman photographed from behind, showing a stylised female face framed by a lace-like headdress, roses and other flowers, a hair ornament and crossing arrows. The linework is fine and sketch-like, with soft shading in the face and hair and denser detail in the flowers. The tattoo is black and grey and sits centrally on the back, with a small tattoo visible on the arm at the left edge of the frame.

Fine line Botanical Back Woman Portrait Face Flower Rose Headdress Arrow Hair ornament Lace

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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 Tom, the pattern for the cap came back from the mill with a fault in the third row, so I have spent two nights unpicking bobbins by candle and my eyes feel like sandpaper. Mother says to tell you the hens are laying again and the Fenwick boy has gone for a soldier, which she thinks will break his mother's heart and I think will break nothing but his boots.

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You asked in your last letter what I would make of the crossing if I were in your shoes, and I have decided the answer is roses. Not real ones, as you know, since the gardens by the canal are all coal dust now, but the ones Mr Adair chalks on the mill floor for the bobbin girls to copy when the overseer is not looking. He says a rose is a dozen small mistakes that agree to look like a single thing. I have thought about that every time a thread jams.

I've enclosed the handkerchief. Look at the corner. I stitched two arrows crossing beneath the lace where a crown would sit, because the captain's wife once told me that crossed arrows mean a message is on its way and cannot be stopped. So if the wind turns foul, you'll know I am still at the frame, sending you the same stubborn thing over and over until one of them gets through.

Come home with your ears still on. Your sister, Ada.