Black and grey geometric tattoo of a circular emblem with three solid ringed motifs and fine connecting lines, on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Circular ringed emblem on an upper arm

Geometric · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A circular emblem sits at the centre of the frame on the upper arm, with three solid black ringed motifs arranged inside a thin outer circle. Fine connecting lines and small dots link the shapes, and the bold black rings contrast with the lighter linework. The tattoo is shown in black ink only, against pale skin and a dark sleeve.

Geometric Blackwork Upper arm Circle Emblem Ring Line Dot

Find an artist for this

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

Ada Pell had run the post office in Fennick Bridge for nineteen years, and she knew the difference between a letter that had been opened and one that had only been waiting. The envelope that came up on the Tuesday train had no stamp and no postmark, only a seal of grey wax pressed with a circle: three solid rings set inside a thin outer ring, with fine lines running between them like rail tracks and small dots where the lines crossed.

Keep reading

"Who's it for?" asked Tom Hargreave, who swept the floor and read everything upside down on the counter. "No name on it, Mrs Pell."

"Then it's for whoever comes asking," Ada said, and she held the wax to the lamp until the rings seemed to look back at her. She had seen a mark like it once, on the tin of tea her mother kept for funerals, and the memory made her put the kettle on before she had decided anything at all.

The letter inside was written in a hand that was neither English nor anything she had been taught at the Board school. Each word was a little circle with a dot set in it, and the lines ran through them the way a ferry crosses a grey estuary. Only at the foot of the page was there a sentence she could read, pencilled so hard it had torn the paper: Keep the kettle on. We come back for the third ring.

That evening Tom asked what it meant. Ada looked out at the bridge, where the river had risen over the lower stones, and the three ringed shapes on the seal had nothing to say about the weather. "It means somebody's counting," she said, and pushed the envelope into the drawer where she kept the things that would have to wait.