Watercolour-style forearm tattoo of Alice in Wonderland beside a Roman numeral pocket watch, with the quote 'I knew who I was this morning' in script, shown in two matching photographs.

Alice, pocket watch and quote on a forearm

Forearm · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo shows a sketched Alice seen from behind, a large Roman numeral pocket watch with a smaller watch above it, and a gold ring with pink and blue segments. Script lettering reads 'I knew who I was this morning but I've changed a few times since then' across the lower and left areas. Black linework is combined with soft blue, pink, yellow and teal washes that fade at the edges, and the design fills the forearm from elbow to wrist.

Forearm Alice Pocket watch Clock Roman numeral Quote Script Ring

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

The hall clock at Hollins House has been stopped at a quarter past four since before the war, and Mrs Ruddock insists it stays that way. You arrive on a wet Thursday in October, dripping onto the runner, and she looks at your carpetbag, then at the watch chain looped through your fingers, and says the room is number seven, which is not a number she has ever had.

Keep reading

Upstairs the wallpaper roses are slightly the wrong shade of pink, and the looking glass shows you a little later than you are. You unpack the pocket watch on the bureau. Its Roman numerals run the wrong way round, starting at the bottom, and the small dial inside ticks only when you hold your breath. Below the window the sea goes grey, then silver, rolling in with the sound of someone shuffling cards.

At supper a retired schoolmaster called Peregrine tells you the house has always had seven rooms and eight residents, and that the eighth changes his name every week. He passes you the mustard without looking up. A girl in a yellow mackintosh sits at the end of the table, sketching gulls on the back of a bill, and she is the only one who asks what time it is. You tell her the truth: you don't know. She laughs and says that is the first honest answer anyone has given her since August.

On the last night you wind the watch and set it to the hall clock's stopped hour. Morning arrives with the tide tapping the glass. Mrs Ruddock waits at the foot of the stairs with a list of who you were yesterday, and you find you are already a little different, the way the tide turns over sand. You go down to breakfast to meet whoever is there.