Black and grey Celtic cross tattoo with interlaced knotwork and thorny vines wrapped around it, on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Celtic cross with thorns on upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A large Celtic cross with raised, bevelled arms filled with interlaced knotwork sits on the upper arm, with thorny branches wrapping around its centre and spilling out at the lower edges. The linework is bold and the shading is soft and dimensional, giving the cross a carved, stone-like look. The tattoo is rendered entirely in black and grey ink, and the crop frames the shoulder and upper arm with the subject centred.

Upper arm Cross Celtic knot Thorn

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit down by the range, Owen, and mind the cat, she has no manners. No, not that story. You want the cross on Carn Bach, the one with the bramble through its arms. Your grandmother's grandmother saw it cut from the grey quarry stone, and the mason cut the knots so tight a blade would skip off them.

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The mason was a quiet man called Tomos Pryce, and he wanted the thorns carved too, climbing the shaft as if they meant to pull the whole thing down. The parish said that was ill luck. Tomos said a cross without its thorns is only a bit of stone, and a man who has never bled for anything should not be trusted with a hammer. So he carved every spur, and the carved thorns grew sharper than any bramble on that hill.

When the winter took the Pritchard boys through the ice, folk climbed up to the cross and found the brambles had crept round its base overnight, thick as rope, threading themselves through the carved arms. Nobody cut them. Old Mair Pritchard said the thorns were holding the stone the way a mother holds a sleeve, and you do not pull a hand off a child who is still grabbing for you.

Now mind, if you go up Carn Bach at dusk in May, the blackthorn will be in flower on the stone. Look at the arm that points to the sea. The brambles let go of that one, and you can read the boys' names in the lichen where the knots open out. Bed with you now, and no looking back at the window.