Colour traditional-style tattoo of a compass rose, two pink roses and a banner reading Not All Who Wander Are Lost, on the upper back.

Compass and roses with banner on upper back

Traditional · Back · Colour · Photo

A compass rose with its N, E, S and W points sits centre stage, with a pink rose overlapping it and a smaller pink rose lower left, both with green leaves. A curled banner above reads "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" and a second banner below the compass is partly obscured by the design. Bold black outlines define the shapes, with pink, orange and yellow fills and black shading on the compass needle.

Traditional Back Compass Compass rose Rose Banner Quote Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The snow came sideways off the tops before four, and by half past you could not see the gate from the yard. Your uncle Dai pressed the lantern into your hand and took the old brass compass from the dresser drawer, the one with the rose worn smooth on its lid. "Top field, the red heifers. They'll be in the lee of the quarry wall if they've any sense," he said, and then, because he was never one for speeches, "Mind the drain."

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The fence posts you counted going up had vanished by the time you reached the stile. The lantern showed you only white, and the wind filled your ears with a noise like a crowd. You opened the compass with numb fingers. The needle trembled, then swung and settled, its black point steady as a held breath. Your grandmother used to say the compass was the only honest thing on the farm, because it never pretended to know where the weather would go. So you turned east, counted your steps, and trusted the needle over the fear.

Your boots found stone before your eyes did. Behind the quarry wall the heifers stood in a tight knot, their flanks steaming like kettles. You counted them twice. Five, and the sixth was the one who always strayed, nosing at the drift as if it had dropped something there. You were cold enough to be cross with her, and you said so, and she came anyway, following the rest down along the wall with her breath in clouds.

At the bottom of the hill the kitchen window glowed, and Dai stood in it with the lamp raised high. You came through the gate with the herd shuffling after you and set the compass on the sill beside the door. The needle quivered, swung once, and pointed straight at you, snow melting on your shoulders, the way you had always been headed.