Black and grey tattoo of a chain link armband wrapping around the upper arm, shown with shading that gives the links a raised, three-dimensional look.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Chain link armband on upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A tattoo of a chain or tread-like band wraps around the upper arm in two loops, with each link drawn as a raised block. The links are shaded in black and grey, with highlights and dark shadows that give depth. The band runs diagonally across the frame against smooth skin, with a small mole and some body hair visible nearby.

Upper arm Chain Armband Band

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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 bellows have been wheezing since before light, and the iron in the forge has gone the colour of wet plums. Your master Hesk has told you twice already that the first link is always the hardest, because the first decides whether the rest will hold. You lift the bar with the long tongs, lay it across the mandrel, and beat it round until the ends kiss and sing.

Keep reading

The order came from Pell, the grain factor who weighs everything twice and trusts nothing he cannot hang from a hook. He wants a band of linked blocks, each one raised at the shoulder so the edges catch the lamplight and the hollows underneath go dark as river mud. You work through the night, shoulder after shoulder, and by the time the cocks begin Hesk's hands are on yours, steadying the hammer, showing you how to bevel the lip so the links lock without a pin.

Pell arrives at dawn with his scales and his doubts. He hangs the coil, frowns at the number, and says the weight is wrong. You say nothing. You take the last link from the end of the chain, turn it to the light, and show him the faint mark you cut into its inner curve with a point of chisel: the name of the debtor whose bond this chain is meant to bind. Pell reads it, and his mouth shuts.

He pays in silver, counted onto the anvil one coin at a time, then drapes the two loops over his shoulder and walks out into the street, a little lighter in the step than when he came. You wipe the soot from your hands, pick up the hammer, and reach for the next bar.