Fine line tattoo of a compass rose and a Madrid-Barajas passport stamp dated 27.06.13 on a person's upper back, with the date in red ink.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Compass and passport stamp on upper back

Fine line · Back · Mixed · Photo

A compass rose with the letters N, E, S and W sits beside a passport-style stamp reading MADRID-BARAJAS with a date and a small code beneath. The linework is fine and precise, with light shading in the compass rings and needle. The compass and stamp outline are in black and grey, while the date on the stamp is in red, set against lightly toned skin.

Fine line Back Compass Compass rose Date Map Travel

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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 Nell, the ink pad at Barajas has gone to crust, so the stamp came out crooked again, the way you always said my wrist would. I pressed it into the back of the Hendry boy's passport at ten to two on the twenty-seventh, in red because the black cartridge ran dry on Tuesday, and he stared at the little box marked Madrid as though it might rearrange itself if he blinked.

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He was flying home to Leeds with a suitcase full of his father's maps and a compass with a cracked glass face. I had found it in the lost property tray by gate nine and kept it, because nobody ever claims a compass. He asked whether it still worked. I said it pointed north in Spain the same as it did in Yorkshire, which is the only promise I have ever been sure of, and he laughed the way boys do when they are trying not to cry in front of a stranger.

Three weeks later a postcard arrived at the desk with no return address. It showed the harbour wall at Cádiz, and on the back, in careful capitals, it said: THE NEEDLE SWUNG ROUND WHEN I WAS LEAVING THE AIRPORT, I THINK IT WAS ONLY TURNING TO SEE ME OFF. Grief makes poets of everybody, Nell, even boys with cracked compasses. I have pinned it above the stamp pad where I can see it every shift.

So if you come through in August, bring your own pen. Mine has run out again, and the date keeps coming out in red whatever I do.