Black and grey realism tattoo of a compass with flowers, a beaded chain and a ribbon reading TAKE ME HOME, on the outer thigh.

Compass and banner on a thigh

Realism · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A compass with a detailed star-point rose sits at the centre of the design, surrounded by a beaded chain, two flowers and a ribbon banner that reads TAKE ME HOME. The linework is fine and the compass face and ring are built with soft grey shading that gives a rounded, three-dimensional look. The design is in black and grey and wraps around the outer thigh, filling most of the frame.

Realism Botanical Thigh Compass Compass rose Flower Banner Ribbon Text Bead Chain

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The snow had reached the top gate by the time I got the ewes in, and Dad was still out in the far field with the quad bike's lamp wobbling over the drifts. I stood in the porch stamping my boots and watching the lane disappear into white. Mum had put the kettle on twice already without making any tea.

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The compass was in the drawer under the bread knife, where Grandad kept the things that mattered and the things that didn't. Brass lid, a star of points worn almost smooth on the north side. He'd carried it up the fells for fifty years, and when I left for Leeds at eighteen he pressed it into my palm and said a needle never lies to someone who knows how to read it. I'd thought that was the sort of thing old men say. I'd never once opened the lid since.

I opened it at the table. The needle swung, shivered, and settled, pointing past the window toward the lane, where headlights would come from if anyone was coming. Inside the lid, in his small square capitals, he'd scratched a line of ink: TAKE ME HOME, with the T crossed twice. I'd always taken it for a joke about his terrible sense of direction.

Dad's lamp came round the top field at half past six. I set the compass on the sill with the lid open and the needle steady on the lane, then went to fill the kettle properly this time.