“I wanted to capture the plants that connect me to the place I grew up in and where I can never return to. For me, it’s about identity and about learning to construct this inner feeling of home. These are the plants I saw in the forest of Russia’s Far East during my childhood and my mom’s garden. Peonies, rosehip, thistle, iris.
My piece is asymmetrical. It’s not a neat flowerbed, but an abundant, overgrown garden. I love wildflowers because they are resilient, self-sustaining, beautiful.
Anna
I spent the most incredible time in the forests and coasts of Costa Rica 15 years ago, during a difficult time in my life. The sense of peace, joy and pure contentment I felt there has never left me, and I still go back to the beauty of those forests in my mind any time I want to tap into those feelings. Pura vida!
Kinga
The last five years have been very tough. The loss of a father and a hard journey with miscarriages before my son Aksel was born in 2023. I wanted a tattoo to celebrate my son and his connection to four different countries by incorporating elements of plants from each of those countries. Reinrose from Norway, Linnea from Sweden, Buckthorn from Denmark and Saffron flower from Iran. Now when I see the tattoo I think about my son, as well as all the people (lost and living) connected to the plants. I really like the incorporation of the roots, for me a symbol of personal growth during hard times and passage of time and life.
Kristine
These flowers and leaves mark the shift in my perspective around food, life and healing. Each plant represents strength, growth and the power of nature to heal. They serve as a permanent reminder of the progress I’ve made and a celebration of how I’ll continue to bloom and grow
Tiff
Trees have played a role in my life since I was very small. Some of my earliest memories are playing with my family underneath the oak tree in our garden, or clambering all over a fallen tree in the middle of the woods with my friends. My mum would take me on picnics when I was very young where we would sit on the same stump and eat our sandwiches. Trees have followed me into my adult life, being a huge part of every day life as a horticulturalist, an arb worker and now ecologist. Beech and oak are the two trees that are featured in my tattoo, for many reasons, but ultimately they both insight joyful memories of being with family, friends and at times, wandering alone in the woods with crunchy leaves under foot.
Becks
I grew up in French Guiana surrounded by the Amazon rainforest and all its plants, its noises and its smells which are an essential part of my identity. Now I live in an urban jungle in London but I want to have a permanent reminder on my body that, no matter where I am in the world, I am never too far away from my roots.
Sara
My tattoo is collection of wild flowers, native to my home county of Derbyshire. I grew up in the countryside, surrounded by plants and flowers on the rolling hills of the Peak District.
Having lived most of my adult life in the city, my tattoos provide me with a connection to home and to the earth. My floral origin story, if you will.
I find comfort in the permanence of botanical tattoos. Whatever happens, whatever changes, they are part of me, steadfast and beautiful.
Joe
I’m drawn to the contrast between their sturdiness and softness- especially the Flag Iris with its spiked leaves, robust stem and soft petals.
Their resilience and strength represent something very meaningful to me. The Ragged Robin and Forget-me-nots are also a nod to my lovely Nan.
Sarah
My tattoo is inspired by the beautiful flowers and foliage that fruits and veggies grow on their journey into providing us with food.
Often I forget that they’re beautiful as plants in their own right even before/without bearing any produce, and now I have a permanent reminder.
There’s also a couple of nostalgic flowers in there too: sweet peas as my granddad always grew them on his allotment alongside his veggies, hoya for my mum - the waxy flowers used to fascinate me when I was younger, and alstroemeria which are my favourite flower”
Chloe
I grew up near the Satpura hills in central India, where my parents worked as doctors in a place that wasn’t on the map. It was an isolated but special childhood, steeped in nature and surrounded with birdsong and branches.
As the years passed, my parents moved across the country and I now live in London, so I find myself even further away from what will always be home to me, but doesn’t exist in that sense anymore.
I came to Daniel to turn that sense of ‘home’ into something tangible: a slice of the past that I could capture and keep. My tattoos are a combination of plants from two places that only live in photographs and memories - fiery gulmohar trees, delicate cotton pods and heady raat ki rani flowers from the tiny hospital campus where I grew up, and trumpet vines and tulsi to remember my grandmother’s sprawling, magical house, which has since been turned into a block of flats.
Neither of these deeply important parts of my childhood exist anymore, but now I get to carry them with me always, inked into my skin, and for that I am deeply grateful.
Manisha
I used to think humans were inherently bad for the earth. Full stop. That changed when I started to truly cultivate a relationship with the natural world around me. Only then did I began to understand how deeply interconnected we are with it.
My relationship with plants since then has become a necessity. Beyond the physiological connection, plants help me make sense of my place in this world. They provide a sense of time that stretches beyond my own limited perception and teach me to cherish stillness. In this way, my relationship with plants gives me a way out from the hyper-individualization that feels so suffocating today.
That’s why I love my tattoo. To me, it’s an embodiment of how I want to move through the world—purposefully rooted in my environment and among nature.
Claire
I’ve always been drawn to wildflowers, especially the ones that grow in the fields where I live. I love how they change with the seasons, bringing a variety of new shapes and colours to the landscape. The flowers and plants in my tattoo all remind me of home, family and time spent walking the fields with my dog Mac.
Chloe
