The other day Ed Knepley in his terrific blog ‘Photography Improvement’ showed a photo from his collection of what he described as ‘The Common Thistle.’
Here in The Land Down Under their common name is ‘Scotch Thistle’ because they were introduced here by early settlers who hailed from Scotland.
Like many Aussies I’ve Scottish ancestry and the Scotch Thistle has a special place in my heart, or should I say, on my right leg.
That’s right I proudly display a tattoo on my calf of a Scotch Thistle SWMBO found growing wild near our place about twenty years ago. She picked it of course and directed me to have a tattoo created from it.
The tattooists made a realistic image of the real thing and did a good job as the ink has hardly faded even though I wear shorts most year round.
Here’s an iPhone selfie of the thistle taken just a few minutes ago. Sorry that it’s not up to Ed’s great standard.
Hoo roo for now.
CREAKINGBONES 
Thanks for sharing and thanks for the kind words about my site. Maybe my wife, with her love of thistles, will get her 1st tattoo.
On your 2-wheels post (I’ve got you by 3 years by the way), at age 65 I had a prostate cancer surgery after which a doc who told me “no bike, no way” when I told him I was signed up for a 540 mile 4 day triathalon (the 1st 2 days of which were bike at 220 miles per day – 3 member team so my share was ~70 miles each day). Six months after the surgery we (myself, son & brother) finished the event (numerous teams didn’t, especially after the 1st day when temps were 106F). The surgeon kept pointing out the proximity of a racing bikes saddle to the site of the surgery and saying “no good will come of this”. I logged close to 3,000 miles over those 6 months getting ready and gave new meaning to the phrase “hard ass”.