Four-panel photo of a black tribal blackwork band wrapping the calf and ankle, with solid bands, triangles, chevrons and zigzag edging.

Blackwork tribal band on lower leg

Blackwork · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

The image is a four-panel collage showing one leg from different angles, with a tribal-style band of solid black fields, fine outlined geometric patterns and zigzag borders wrapping the calf and ankle. The design mixes bold solid black shapes with thin-line hexagons, triangles, chevrons and stripes. The work is entirely black ink on pale skin against plain indoor backgrounds.

Blackwork Geometric Calf Ankle Tribal pattern Triangle Chevron Zigzag Stripe Hexagon

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dearest Nell,

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You will laugh, but the Majestic has finally given me the pattern I've been hunting since Whitsun. Mr Ferris, who keeps the boilers, let me into the back of the ballroom on Tuesday with a torch and a bad cough, and there beneath the stage was the border of the old sprung floor: black oak strips cut to triangles, then a band of little hexagons, then a zigzag that runs like a tide mark round the whole room. Someone laid it in 1911 and nobody has walked on it since the dances moved upstairs.

I drew it all on squared paper, every chevron and rebate, and took the measurements with my good brass rule so the quilt border will come out true. Mr Ferris says the carpenter was a Swede called Lindqvist who went home to Gothenburg with his wages in a biscuit tin and never sent word. He also says the hexagons were counted wrong on purpose, so the floor would never quite lie flat and the couples would be obliged to hold each other closer. I don't believe him, but I've left the one crooked hexagon in my drawing anyway.

Saturday's dance was the first time the band played the Blue Danube with the lights turned low, and I stood by the pillar watching the feet go round. Every pair of shoes moved over those black and white lines as though following a map. I thought of you, and how you'd have had the whole room counting the steps.

Send my ruler back when you're done with it. I'll bring the drawing to Hull once the quilt is finished, and we can see whether the zigzags meet at the corners the way I've worked them.

Your loving sister, Dora