Stencil-style tree of life design made of interlaced Celtic knotwork in green and blue gradient ink on a white background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Celtic knotwork tree of life design

Colour · Flash

A symmetrical tree of life with a looping knotwork canopy, a braided trunk and curling roots spreading at the base. The lines are bold, even and interlaced over and under one another, with scrolled tendrils at the top and bottom. The design is shaded from sage green at the edges to deep blue through the centre, set against a plain white background.

Tree of life Celtic knot Knotwork Tree Branches Root

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz, the gale brought down the rowan behind the boathouse, the one your father set in the lee wall the spring before the new light was lit. I found it at dawn with the lantern still turning above me. It had split at the fork, but the roots had gripped the stones so hard they came up in a single knot, like a fist opening.

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Mr Hollis from the lighthouse board came over on the supply boat with his clipboard and his opinions. He wanted it cut for firewood before the damp got into the timber. I told him the tree was not firewood. I had Ewan carry the thickest limb up to the workshop, and we worked the bark off with a drawknife while the wind sang through the gallery rails. Inside the wood were rings that curved like the loops of a braid, tighter where the winters had been hard.

Ewan asked what I meant to make of it. I said a bench for the lamp room, so whoever keeps the light has somewhere to sit between watches and count the ships. He said nobody counts ships anymore, the radar does that. I said then they can count the rings instead, and he laughed the way he does when he is trying not to cry.

The bench is nearly done. I have cut the last of the knots along the seat, where the grain runs over and under itself, and tomorrow I will carry it up the iron stairs and set it beneath the glass. Come home when the relief boat sails. Bring the good tea, and tell me whether the sea looks the same from the other side of the island. Your loving wife, Catriona.