Abstract fine line and dotwork tattoo on a lower leg, with a starburst, a leaf, teal and purple dots and a black vertical shape.

Abstract starburst and leaf on a calf

Fine line · Calf · Mixed · Photo

A lower leg carries an abstract composition of a fine line starburst near the knee, a detailed leaf, and scattered solid teal, purple and pink dots. A dotwork triangle and a solid black vertical shape sit lower down the calf, with a small purple accent near the ankle. The black linework is delicate and the coloured fills are soft and irregular, set against a plain grey wall and a white windowsill.

Fine line Dotwork Botanical Calf Starburst Leaf Dot Triangle Abstract shape Geometric shape

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The cormorant had been on the rock since Tuesday and nobody had come to shift it, so when the relief boat finally nosed into Skerra Bay I was already halfway through the dull job of counting paraffin tins. Mr Ogilvie said I had a head for numbers. I said a head for numbers was no use if the lamp went dark, and he laughed and said that was why there were two of us.

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The lamp never went dark on my watch. What went dark was the glass. Every night I wiped the lantern panes with vinegar and a square of old flannel, and every morning there were new specks on them, little round salt marks as if someone had flicked a brush. My sister Isla, who drew for the mainland papers, said the sea was breathing on us. I thought it was only the sea.

Then in March, after a gale took the boathouse roof, I climbed up before dawn and found a starburst of cracks fanning out from one pane, rays radiating from a single chip the size of a barley grain. Through it the light had split into coloured coins that danced across the gallery floor: teal, violet, a pink like the inside of a shell. I stood there in my wet boots until the sun rose and the pattern faded. Then I fetched my pencil and drew it, every ray and spot, the way Isla had taught me.

I still have that drawing. The glazier who came over on the next boat swept up the broken pane without asking what I had been looking at, and fitted a clean one in its place.