Solid black lace-pattern tattoo wrapping around the inner forearm, in a blackwork style with scalloped edges and openwork motifs.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Black lace cuff tattoo on a forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A wide band of lace-pattern tattoo wraps around the forearm, with scalloped edges and a central panel of stylised flower-like motifs. The design is built from solid black fill and negative space, with the skin showing through the open lace areas. The plain black background keeps the focus on the pattern, which is shown straight on and evenly lit.

Blackwork Forearm Lace Lace pattern Floral motif Cuff

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 Nell, the bobbin lace is finished at last, so you can stop asking me when. I pinned the last sprig to the cushion on Tuesday night and the whole border came away in one piece, which Mrs Abernethy said was a miracle and I said was simply patience. Your grandad would have laughed at that. He always said I had more patience than sense.

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The pattern is the Honiton scallop, the one my mother taught me with the little rosettes in the middle. I had to draw it out four times on squared paper before the scallops sat right against each other. The pins are the fiddly part. Every hole has to be exactly where the last one was, or the whole thing puckers like a badly made hem. I kept thinking of the platform at Exeter Central, the way the lamps came on one after another down the line when the light went, each one a little further from the last.

You asked me in your letter whether I'd ever wear it. I told you no, it was for the cushion and for the drawer. But this morning the post came with a parcel from the lad at the ironmonger's, who says his cousin is a tattooist in Bristol and wanted to know if I'd mind her copying the pattern off the photograph. I said she could have it, and I've put the kettle on to think it over. Write soon, and bring the good scissors when you come down.