Black linework tattoo of a compass-style symbol inside a ring of runes, on the upper back near the shoulder.

Compass and runes on the shoulder

Geometric · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A circular compass-style symbol sits inside a ring of runic characters, drawn in thin, even black linework. The design is shown on the upper back and shoulder of a person whose face is not visible, with a lace-backed top and a blurred interior behind. The ink is solid black and the symbol is centred on the shoulder blade area.

Geometric Shoulder Compass Rune Circle Symbol

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lift on Ward 9 stopped between the second and third floors at twenty past two, and the corridor lights dropped to amber, then to the red glow of the exit signs. I had a blood bag in a cool box, a porter who had gone off to find a torch, and Mr Halloran in bed fourteen asking whether it was morning yet.

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Bernard had taught me one thing before he retired to his allotment. Pinned inside the controlled drugs cupboard was a biro drawing he'd copied from a library book, a ring of tiny letters around an eight-armed star. He said his grandmother used to draw it on the inside of her husband's cap before he went out on the boats in Shetland. It was meant to stop a man losing his way in bad weather. I had always assumed it was mostly for show.

I had no cap, so I drew it on my palm with the biro from my breast pocket, the way you'd write a number you couldn't afford to lose. Then I walked the route the way Bernard had shown me: past the sluice where the floor was always wet, through the fire door with the wedge under it, down the stairwell that smelled of floor polish. At each landmark I touched one point of the star, and by the time the ink had smudged to a grey stain, I was standing at the foot of the stairs with the bag still cold under my arm.

Mr Halloran was awake when I got back, staring at the ceiling. 'Found it, then?' he said. I told him I had. In the morning the palm was just a palm, but I had already drawn the star again on the inside of the cupboard door, beside Bernard's, so the next nurse would not have to find her own way.