Close crop of a light-toned compass rose design with radiating points and dotted rings on a shoulder, geometric in style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Compass rose on a shoulder

Geometric · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A close view of a shoulder carrying a compass rose design, with eight radiating points, a central hub and concentric dotted rings. The lines are fine and pale against brown skin, so the mark may be white ink or a raised scar rather than black ink, and the image does not make this certain. The image has no colour ink, and the composition is tight on the shoulder with dark hair at the right edge.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, the harbour wall has been washed white twice this week and still the gulls won't leave the slipway alone. I wanted you to know I have the chart you asked for, the old one with the rose drawn in the top corner, eight points and the little ring of dots your father always said was the sea counting itself. Mr Tulloch let me take it from the chandlery drawer on the understanding I'd bring it back by Sunday, so I am copying the bearings out by hand tonight under the lamp.

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You'll laugh, but the boats went out again this morning without the Maren. Her skipper swore the glass was steady and the compass needle wouldn't settle on north, and he turned her round at the Gannet buoy and came home with an empty hold. I walked down to see her moored and the needle was still spinning in its bowl like a child's top. Nobody on the quay said anything clever about it. They just looked at the rose on the bulkhead, the one that has been there since the yard built her, and then they looked at each other.

I'm going to take the chart out at first light, before the tide turns, and set a course by the star points instead of the needle. If the rose is right I'll be back by noon with something to show for it. If it isn't, you'll know where I was.

Keep the kettle on for me. Love, Tam.

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