Two side-by-side photos of an anchor tattoo with a bow and the word Sister on a forearm, one in black and grey and one with pink and coloured shading.

Anchor and bow with Sister script on a forearm

Neo-trad · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

The image shows the same anchor design in two side-by-side panels on a forearm, with a rope coiled around the top of the anchor and a ribboned bow wrapped around its shank. The left panel is black and grey, with smooth shading on the metal and soft greys on the bow, while the right panel adds a pink bow and warm skin-toned highlights to the rope. The word Sister is written in a script lettering along the bottom of the anchor in both panels.

Neo-trad Lettering Forearm Anchor Bow Rope Sister Script

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

Mags had the spare ribbon in her apron pocket when the Halcyon tied up at Porthellis, the way she had carried it every morning since the storm. Her brother Tom had sailed out with a bow of red silk knotted round the anchor chain, a joke between them that the ship needed dressing up like a Sunday hat. Now the chain hung slack from the bow, and the men on the quay kept their eyes on the water.

Keep reading

The harbourmaster's boy said the crew had come in short-handed, two men left on Skerry Rock. Mags did not believe the rumours, not yet. She walked the length of the quay, past the nets and the tar barrels, to where the old iron anchor sat rusting beside the lifeboat slip. Someone had once scratched the word SISTER into the flat of its stock with a nail, a child's letters, though nobody in the village would own to it.

She unpicked the knot from her apron and tied the ribbon on again, tighter, the way Tom liked. Then she sat on the cold stone with her back to the sea and waited for the tide to turn, because that was what the sea did, and she had never once known it to hurry.

When the Halcyon's light came round the headland at dusk, she did not stand. She only lifted one hand and let the red silk catch the last of the sun.