Just a small single scale motif seen from WS, with reverse stockinette surrounding it.
It requires making sure that the stitches prior to being tucked (slip yo like in brioche) are knit on wrongside.
While this makes it look best it makes it a little unwieldy to reform so many stitches when done on a knitting machine. A workaround is to reform to knit only the beginning edge of each scale.
Shown with a cast-on count of 15 stitches.