Black outline tattoo of three stylised abstract shapes running across the inner upper arm, on plain skin.

Black outline abstract shapes on upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo is a row of three connected, outlined shapes with angular and wavy edges, drawn in a single black line of even weight. The shapes are left unshaded and unfilled, so the skin shows through the interior of each outline. The photograph is taken straight on against a soft, blurred background, with the arm filling most of the frame.

Upper arm Abstract shape Outline Line drawing

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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

The third outline came out wrong again, Tom, and I have stopped blaming the pencil. Every morning the cloud sits on the col like a wet blanket, and every afternoon it lifts just enough for me to get three rocks down on paper before the wind takes my hat.

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You asked why I draw them without shading. Old Halloran at the refuge says the shepherds only ever mapped the edges of things, because the middle belonged to the weather. So I have three shapes on the sheet: the tall stone with the split down its face, the round-headed one that looks like a man bowing to the valley, and the ragged one at the end that the goats climb like stairs. I leave their insides empty. When the light comes through the paper, it looks as though the rock is still deciding what it is.

Yesterday a boy from the farm below walked up with a flask and sat on my pack while I worked. He traced the bowing man's outline with one finger on the paper, then asked if I'd filled him in yet. I told him no. He nodded as though that was the correct answer. I think he was right.

The survey closes at the end of the month, and I will send you the sheet whether the pass is fixed or not. Keep the kettle warm for me, and if the ink runs out in the post, write on the back of the envelope.