Black and grey compass rose tattoo with N, E, S and W letters and a dotted outer ring, shown on the forearm.

Compass rose on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A compass rose with a pointed eight-ray star sits at the centre of the design, with the letters N, E, S and W marking the main points and smaller intercardinal letters around the edge. Bold solid black fills the star points, while thin black outlines, tick marks and concentric rings form the dial, with light grey shading on the inner rays. The design is centred on the forearm against plain skin and a white background.

Traditional Forearm Compass Compass rose Star Ring Dot Letter

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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

You wake before the bell because the lamp needs trimming and the wind has gone round to the north-west again, the way it does before weather. Mrs Ashdown has left a note on the kitchen table in pencil: the cutter is late, the flour is short, and the dog has eaten your glove. You read it twice, fold it into your pocket, and climb the spiral stairs with the oil can knocking against your hip.

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At the top the glass is cold and streaked with salt. You work the wick by feel while the sea moves below in long grey folds. On the brass rim of the lantern room someone scratched a ring of hours long ago, and beside it the compass card that the old keeper pinned there, its north gone brown and its letters worn to ghosts. You have never once needed it. The coast is the coast. Still, you tap the glass where the needle would sit and watch the reflection of the lamp swing across the water like a slow hand finding its way.

A light shows on the horizon, low and steady, then drops out of sight behind a swell. You count the seconds the way your father taught you, lips moving, until it returns, and you are surprised how much you want it to. When the cutter finally noses in past the rocks at noon, its hull scraped white, the skipper lifts a hand and shouts that he saw your beam all the way from the buoy. You do not tell him you were only checking the points of the compass, the eight of them, and that each one leads back to the same tower.