Blackwork and dotwork geometric full sleeve covering a man's arm from shoulder to wrist, with diamond lattice and cog motifs on the upper arm and forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Blackwork geometric full arm sleeve

Blackwork · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A three-panel collage of a man's arm covered by a full blackwork sleeve, shown from front, side and back views. Solid black ink fills most of the arm, with unfilled skin forming diamond lattice, fan and arc shapes, and a stippled dotwork cog and gear near the elbow. The image is black and grey, with a blurred blue backdrop and the top of a white garment and plaid shorts visible at the edges.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The gearbox on the Marigold gave out again off Dogger, somewhere past the second night of the blow, and I spent the whole watch with my arms in the bilge up to the shoulder. Skipper says the pattern is older than both of us, which is no comfort when the cog teeth are sheared and you're filing replacements from a bar of mild steel by torchlight. Cold grease gets under everything. I've stopped trying to wipe it off.

You'll laugh, but the thing that kept me going was the net store. Ruth's father had the ribs of the hold painted white years back, and in the swell the diamonds of shadow slid across the deck as if they were breathing. I counted them to stop my hands shaking. Forty-two diamonds to the bulkhead, three fans of light where the winch housing sits. When the sea came over the rail I'd look up, find the same pattern again, and know which way was aft.

We're making for Grimsby on the morning tide, if the wind lays down. Tell Mum the fish are fine and I'm not drowning. Bring the good tea to the quay and keep the gulls off the sandwiches.

Your brother, Danny

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