Fine line black compass rose with N, E, S and W letters and a cursive script word beside it, tattooed on an ankle.

Compass and script word on an ankle

Fine line · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of a small compass rose tattooed on the outer ankle, with arrow points at each end and the letters N, E, S and W marked around it. A flowing cursive word sits beside the compass, drawn in thin black lines. The ink is black on pale skin, and the image is centred on the ankle against a plain light background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ines, the bell has rung for Lauds and I have ten minutes before the ink dries in this cold. Brother Anselm has taken the scriptorium's last good quill, so I am writing with the charcoal pencil you left behind at Michaelmas. Forgive the smudges.

Keep reading

The abbot had the surveyor back up the north road last week. He stood in the courtyard with his brass wind-rose spread on the flagstones and told us the high pass would close with the first snow, and that any man who walked it now would be walking into the dark. I thought of you on the coast road, always finding your own way without asking anyone which direction was north.

Here is the news. Brother Tobias has recut the sundial over the cloister door, because he says the arrows must point true or the hours will lie. He carved a small compass beside the gnomon, four points and the letters N, E, S and W, and asked me to lettering the name beneath it since I have the steadier hand. I did it in a hurry before Vespers, and it leans like a boat in a wind. I hope you will forgive that as well.

When you come back over the pass in spring, look for it. The shadow will fall across the name at noon, and you will know exactly where you are.

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