Realism tattoo of a compass over a handwritten map with red maple leaves on the forearm.

Compass and map with maple leaves on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A detailed compass with a grey metal case and dial sits in the centre of the forearm, with a second, smaller compass beside it. Behind them, a sepia and pink map shows handwritten place names, and red maple leaves with dark shading sit at the lower edge. Shading is smooth and realistic, with the metal rendered in greys and the leaves in vivid red.

Realism Forearm Compass Map Maple leaves Handwriting

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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 Hetty, the brass compass you sent back with the last parcel has stopped sticking, so I have moved it onto the chart table where the window light falls. Father would have laughed at me fussing over a thing that only tells you north. He always said north was the one direction a man could not be argued out of.

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I have finished the Arcadia sheet at last. Mr Pryce wanted the names copied in his own hand, but I lettered them myself: Samos, Colorado, the little ring for Mytilene, all in brown ink I thinned with rainwater from the cistern. The paper is pink at the edges where the tea went over it, and he says the stain will fool the buyers into thinking it old. I did not argue. Some things should look as though they have been carried a long way.

The maple leaves came in on the boat from Halifax, pressed between the pages of a ledger. I kept one. It is red as a postbox and already going brittle at the stalk. When the wind comes off the harbour the shutters knock, and I think of the little pocket compass Father left me, which I have posted to you, because you were always the one who got lost first and I never once worried about it.

Come home at Christmas if the ice allows. Bring the pocket compass. I will show you where the ink ran out.