Black solid stars and fine swirling vines tattooed on the side of a torso, with small gem-like studs set into some of the larger stars.

Black stars and swirls on a side torso

Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A cluster of solid black five-pointed stars of varying sizes sits among thin black scrolling vine linework that curls across the skin. The stars are filled in flat black with no visible shading, while the swirls use uniform single-line strokes. Only black ink is visible against warm skin tones, and the design wraps diagonally from the upper right down to the waistband of dark jeans at the bottom edge.

Ribs Star Swirl Vine Scroll

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

The fog came off the Trent the night the lock keeper's lamp went out, and you were the only one aboard who could still name the stars. Your father had taught you on the roof of the cabin, pointing with a pipe stem at the black gaps between the chimneys until the constellations were as familiar to you as the names of the locks. Tonight the barge Marigold drifted with her engine ticking over, and above you there was nothing but a smear of grey.

Keep reading

Ruth Pell, who had the tiller on the boat behind, hailed you from the dark. 'Can you see anything, love?' You said nothing yet. You were thinking of the chart your father kept folded inside his tobacco tin, the one with small five-pointed marks inked beside every safe mooring, and the pencilled vines he drew round them like a fence around a garden he never planted.

The fog thinned at the bend where the willows stood. Three stars showed through, then four, bright enough to lay a thin line of light across the black water. You took the bearing, called it back to Ruth, and felt the barge come round under your hands as if she had been waiting for the word.

The chart is still in the tin. You never found the mooring it marked for home, but you have kept the stars steady on it all the same, and when the lamp goes out you steer by the marks he made.