Black and grey mandala tattoo with a dense radial pattern on the inner forearm of a person wearing a white top and black and white patterned trousers.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Black mandala tattoo on a forearm

Geometric · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A large black mandala covers the forearm, with a central rosette surrounded by layered rings of petals, dots and fine radiating lines. The linework is crisp and the dark ink is solid, with some stippled detail in the outer petals. The arm is photographed against a dark background beside a black and white floral patterned fabric, which contrasts with the tattoo.

Geometric Dotwork Forearm Mandala Flower Rosette Petal Dot Pattern

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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

By the fortieth day out of Valparaíso the ink had thickened in the bottle, so Father drew the bearings with a stub of charcoal instead, and I held the lamp while his hand went round and round the paper.

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He drew the rose the same way every time. A dot for the pole star, a ring of petals for each point of the compass, then fine lines running out from the middle like the spokes of a cartwheel. "Measure with the petals," he said, "and the sea can't fool you about where north is." I took it for an old sailor's superstition until the Mariner's Hope lost her mainmast off the Horn and the glass fell like a stone.

For nine days we steered by his rose. Every noon I marked the sun's shadow against the outer ring, every night I counted the dots that showed through the cloud, and whenever the ship wanted to run away from the wind I drew another ring and made the numbers agree. Father's hands shook by then. Mine did not.

We raised the Scillies on a grey Tuesday with the wind backing west. Father took the paper from me, folded it once along the middle line and put it in his coat without a word. Years later it was still in the drawer, the inked petals gone soft at the creases, and I still draw a rose before I trust a single bearing.