Colour tattoo of an anatomical heart with a faceted, geometric lower half in pastel lilac and pink on a forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Anatomical heart with crystal base on forearm

Geometric · Forearm · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows a realistic anatomical heart with its upper vessels shaded in soft lilac, pink and blue-grey. The lower half turns into a faceted, crystal-like form outlined in fine black linework, with a small geometric gem at its centre. The photograph is taken straight on, with the forearm filling most of the frame against a grey, blurred background.

Geometric Forearm Heart Anatomical heart Crystal Facet Gem Vessel

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

Dear Tullia, the rock you sent word about has finally split the way the old lapidary said it would, along the grain like a loaf. Don't tell Father I stayed up three nights at the wheel. I have the first half of the heart done, and it is not what the magistrate ordered, though I think he will like it better.

Keep reading

He wanted a plain heart for the temple of the river god, the kind the surgeons draw on wax tablets, with the great vessels spreading from the top like the roots of a fig. I gave him the vessels in a rosy mist, the colour of a dove's breast and the blue-grey of rain coming over the hills, because that is what the sky looked like the day Corvinus paid me. Then I cut the lower part the way crystal grows in the seam at Mount Pelion, facet on facet, every edge scored with a line so fine the boy who holds the lamp swears he cannot see it.

At the centre I set a small gem, cut into its own tiny faces, where the chamber should be. When the sun came through the workshop shutter this morning it threw a star across the wall, and the boy went quiet and crossed himself. Corvinus will call it a flaw. I think it is the only honest thing in the room.

I am sending you the sketch under this letter. Keep it dry. If the magistrate refuses to pay, sell it to someone who believes a heart can be made of light, and buy yourself those sandals you have been eyeing in the Forum.