Black linework tattoo of overlapping circles, arcs and dots in a geometric style on an upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Abstract circles and arcs on upper arm

Geometric · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A tattoo of overlapping circles, arcs, dots and straight lines covers the outer upper arm, with the elbow visible at the bottom of the frame. The design uses fine black linework alongside a few solid black circles and filled shapes. It is entirely black ink on pale skin, and the composition wraps around the arm with the shapes arranged over the curve of the muscle.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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You asked why I've spent three weeks on my knees with a beam compass and a tin of chalk, and I've never managed a straight answer, so here is a long one. Mr Hebden wants the new floor at the Palais laid out in true circles, not the squares the old committee drew. He says a dancer should turn in the same shape the record is spinning. I told him the record turns at seventy-eight and nobody dances in a circle that size, and he told me to measure before I argued.

So I measured. Every arc has to meet the next at the place where a couple's hands would part and find each other again. There are nine centres in all, and where the rings overlap there is a small scatter of dots, which he calls the places a waltz forgets to go. He had me ruled the straight lines first, running from the stage to the fire door, so the orchestra would know where it stood. Then the circles went over them like weather.

Last night I stayed late to watch the first dancers test it. A girl in a green frock went round the outermost ring, and her partner kept stepping off the line and laughing, and on the third time round she stopped in the very centre dot and looked up at the chandelier as if she'd been expected there all along. Mr Hebden set down his pencil. I think he forgave me the sums.

Write soon. The lamps go in on Thursday and I have chalk in my hair.

Yours, Eddie

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