Black ornamental tattoo across the back of a hand with a star at the centre and a patterned band on the forearm, in a blackwork style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Black star and patterned forearm band on hand

Blackwork · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A raised hand and forearm show dense black ornamental designs. A large eight-pointed star sits at the centre of the palm and the back of the hand, with fine linework extending across the fingers. A wide band of patterned black geometric motifs wraps the forearm, and the photo is taken against a pale tiled floor.

Blackwork Geometric Hand Forearm Star Geometric pattern Mandala Finger Band Ornamental

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas,

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The compass came back from the Saltmere office on Tuesday, folded inside Father's old oilcloth, and I have spent three nights trying to work out why Master Orsolin kept it. Eight points, all drawn in the same ink, with a band of interlocking hooks running round the edge like the border on a bridle. He told the clerk it was the only true map of Veyl, and then he asked for the lamp to be turned down so he could sleep.

Mother says I am to stop reading the chart at the kitchen table, but the lines move if you hold them to the window. The eight rays do not point north. They point to the eight gates of the old wall, and where the band crosses them, someone has pencilled a small hand with its fingers spread, as if it were measuring distance by its own span. I measured that hand against the gate on Harrow Street. It is exactly the width of the Saltmere road.

Tomas, if you reach the marsh before the thaw, do not walk the causeway at dusk. Follow the band of hooks instead. Orsolin's note says the hooks are the old road markers, and the star is where the road ends and the water begins, though I cannot tell whether he means a town or a grave.

I will send the chart with the carter on Friday. Burn my letter after you read it, though you never do what I ask.

Yours, Liesl