Black line tattoo of a large circle filled with concentric rings, dots and straight lines, sitting on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Circular geometric design on a forearm

Geometric · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A large circular design sits on the forearm, filled with overlapping concentric rings, scattered small circles, dots and straight vertical and diagonal lines. The linework is a single weight of black ink with a few faint reddish lines, and there is no shading. The circle fills most of the frame against a blue sleeve and a pale background.

Geometric Forearm Circle Concentric circle Dot Line Geometric pattern Ring

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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

Dear Ada, the master has finally let me touch the disc, though only with gloves and only while he watches my hands like a hawk. It is a plate of beaten bronze no wider than a cartwheel hub, and every inch of it is scored with rings that overlap like ripples from a dropped pebble. Between the rings run straight lines that never quite meet, and along the rim sits a row of tiny holes, each a different depth, as if someone punched them with a nail and changed their mind.

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The master says it is a calendar. The wine merchant across the square swears it is a map of the harbour, and the priests say it is a letter nobody has finished writing. I sat with it until the lamps went out, tracing the largest ring with one finger, and I think the rings are not all the same kind. Some are closed. Some are open on one side, as if a sentence stopped halfway through a word.

This morning I found a dot I had missed for three days, sitting exactly where a small circle touched the edge of a big one. When I lined it up with the rim holes I counted nine, which is how many bells the harbour master rings at dusk. I told the master. He told me to polish the hinge.

I am writing this so there is one honest account somewhere if the plate goes to the furnace in spring. Tell Father I am eating properly. The disc is to be sold to a man from the coast who pays in silver and asks no questions, so I have decided to copy every line before he arrives, even the faint red ones the master insists are only scratches.