Black and grey dotwork drawing of an anatomical heart pierced by two arrows, shown on translucent paper beside a hand.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Anatomical heart with arrows

Dotwork · Black and grey · Flash

A stippled black ink drawing of an anatomical heart with an arrow piercing its upper section and a second arrow entering from below. The heart is shaded with dense dots, while the vessels, arrow fletching and outline are drawn in fine solid linework. The design sits centred on translucent paper, with a hand at the left edge and a black drawing pen at the right.

Dotwork Heart Anatomical heart Arrow Vein

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the ovens went on at half four and I have been up to my elbows since, so forgive the smudges. Mr Ambrose has pinned your drawing above the proving shelf, the one you did on tracing paper the week before you left. He says it is the only thing in the shop that keeps its shape overnight.

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You will remember how you pricked every dot with that black pen, a hundred thousand small stabs, because you said shading was just patience with a point. I thought you were mad. Now I test the dough the same way, pressing it gently with a floured knuckle to see if it springs back. The arrows are the bit I never understood. You said one came from above and one from below, so the heart was caught from both sides, and I said that sounded like a bad day at the dentist's. You laughed, then went quiet and drew the veins.

This morning the first batch came out the colour of old pennies. Ambrose tapped a loaf, listened, and nodded, and I felt the way I used to when you nodded at my pencil lines. I have started keeping your offcuts in a biscuit tin beside the flour bin.

When I came back from the bins at six, a single crumb of crust had stuck to the point of the lower arrow, a gold fleck sitting exactly on the tip. I have left it there. Come up when the bread's right, or don't. Yours, Tam.