Black and grey realistic tattoo of an angular rune-like symbol carved into cracked stone effect on skin, with reddened skin around it.

3D cracked-stone rune on skin

Realism · Black and grey · Photo

An angular, rune-like symbol is rendered as if carved into a surface, with raised bevelled edges and cast shadows. Fine cracks radiate outward from the symbol, and soft grey shading fades into the surrounding skin. The tattoo is in black and grey, centred in the frame against a pinkish, slightly blurred background.

Find an artist for this

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

Sit down on the bench, love, and don't touch the stone with your muddy hands, it's been sulking since the frost. You see that rune there, the one like a gate with its latch knocked off? My grandfather cut it in the spring the orchard wall came down. He had a chisel from the Carlisle market and a foul temper, and he swore at every chip that flew up into his eye.

Keep reading

The cracks came later, the way they do. The first hard winter the stone split along the lines he'd carved, as if the letter had wanted out, and the whole south wall went with it. Dad said it was nonsense, frost and bad mortar, and he was probably right. But every time I went out to the hives after that, I saw the thin lines running off the rune into the stone like the roots of a dead hawthorn, and I counted them the way other girls counted sheep.

When they dug out the old footings last summer, the man from the council said the stone was finished and should go to the skip. I wouldn't let him. I sat in the wet grass until he gave up and drove off in his van. So it's still here, cracked and stubborn, with the bees going in and out of the gap beside the latch.

Now put your hand flat on it. Feel that? It's warm, same as the day he finished it. The cracks don't mean it's broken, love. They mean it's been holding something up for a very long time, and it's still doing it.

More like this

Black and grey tattoo of an ornate key with a textured bow and a hand gripping it, running from the shoulder down the upper arm.
Ornate key tattoo on upper arm
Bold black tribal tattoo with flame-like spikes running vertically down a forearm.
Black tribal design on a forearm
Solid black biohazard symbol tattoo with heart-shaped cutouts in its centre, placed on the back of a person's neck.
Biohazard symbol with heart on the neck
Close photo of a single blue arrow and loop symbol tattoo on a forearm, drawn in a simple outlined style.
Arrow and loop symbol on a forearm
Black angular star tattoo with sharp points on the back of a neck, framed by dark hair and a black top collar.
Angular star tattoo on the back of the neck
Black ink tattoo of a stylised eye symbol with a curved hook below it, placed on the inner wrist.
Stylised eye symbol on the inner wrist
Black and grey shaded Celtic knot tattoo of an interlaced triquetra with pointed leaf-shaped loops on skin.
Celtic knot triquetra with leaf loops
Bold black blackwork tattoo of overlapping circles and triangles with ink splatter details, placed on the upper back.
Circles and triangles on upper back
Black script lettering tattoo running along the outer forearm, with thick strokes and sharp, tapered ends.
Black script tattoo on a forearm
Colour botanical tattoo of pink plumeria flowers, black swirling vines and a black tribal motif with green leaves, on the top of a foot.
Plumeria and swirl vine foot tattoo
Black outline tattoo of a bird flying over a bow arrow inside a circle, on the outer arm.
Bird and arrow in a circle on an arm
Black linework tattoo of looping swirls and a heart-shaped curl running vertically down a section of skin.
Black swirl and heart linework on skin

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.