Hand-drawn black ink mandala design on white paper, with radiating petal shapes and dotwork shading, beside a pen and ruler.

Black ink mandala design with dotwork

Dotwork · Black and grey · Flash

A detailed mandala drawn in black ink on white paper, with a central star motif surrounded by layered petal and leaf shapes. Fine linework is combined with stippled dotwork shading and hatching to build tone across the petals and outer rings. The design fills the frame in a circular composition, with a pen and a ruler visible at the top and right edges.

Dotwork Geometric Mandala Star Petal Leaves Pattern Stippling

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, the drawing took me three weeks of evenings at the kitchen table, and I am sending you the only copy because Mr Halloran at the print shop says he cannot reproduce the dots without them smearing. You will think me mad for counting them, but I did. There are four hundred and twelve in the first ring alone, and I kept a tally on the back of the gas bill so I would not lose my place when the wireless started up in the front room.

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The star in the middle is the part I am proudest of. Twelve points, each one ruled with the steel rule your father left in the drawer, and every point cut by a little diamond that I filled in with hatching so fine you need a lens to see it. Mum says it looks like a fallen sun that has been swept up and put back together. I told her that is exactly what I meant, though I had not known it until she said so.

The petals came after, one row at a time, and each row was harder than the last because the paper had to hold them all. By the outer ring I was pricking the dots with the nib until my wrist ached and the ruler at the edge of the table had a fresh ink smear across the inches. Tuesday I nearly tipped the whole bottle over it. I did not, and I took that as a sign.

So here it is. When you come home at Easter, look for the star. Put your finger on the centre and tell me which way the petals are turning. I still cannot decide, and I think it might be the only honest thing I have ever drawn.

Your loving sister, Margaret