Black and grey tattoos of a compass, a pocket watch, flowers and a lettered banner on two upper arms.

Compass and pocket watch with banner on two arms

Botanical · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

Two matching tattoos sit side by side, each showing a pocket watch with flower sprigs above and a scroll banner below. The left watch has an eight-point compass rose on its face, and the right watch shows Roman numerals and clock hands. The linework is fine and sketchy with light shading, and the banner lettering is partly cut off at the edges of the frame.

Botanical Lettering Upper arm Compass Pocket watch Clock Flower Banner Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The clock in the lamp room had stopped again, its hands sulking at twenty past three, which meant nothing to a light that had to be lit at dusk regardless. Win was already at the glass, rubbing salt from the lantern panes with her sleeve and scolding the gulls who had settled on the rail to watch her.

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Their father had left them two pocket watches and a brass compass the autumn the fog took his boat off the Mewstone. Win kept the compass in her apron pocket and checked its rose against the north window every evening. Ada kept the watch that still ran, winding it at six each night the way he had taught her, as if the sea might be persuaded to keep to a timetable.

'Tide's turned,' Win said, squinting at the rocks below. 'Your clock says otherwise.'

'My clock has always said otherwise.' Ada pried open the back of the watch and found the folded slip tucked inside, its ink gone the colour of weak tea. Steer by the one, set by the other. They had read it a hundred times and never agreed what it meant. Ada set the hands by the first wash of water against the stone, Win lined the compass up with the lamp, and between them the great lens began to turn. Below, the sea came up the rock at its own pace, and for once the two of them kept it company.