Black compass rose tattoo with a solid eight-point star inside dotted and solid rings, on the inner forearm near the wrist.

Compass rose on the inner forearm

Geometric · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A solid black eight-point compass star sits at the centre of a tattoo, framed by a thin solid ring, a dashed inner ring and a dotted outer ring. The star points are filled with bold black ink and textured shading, while the rings use fine lines and stippled dots. The design is centred on the forearm, with a braided bracelet and charms visible above it against a plain, pale background.

Geometric Dotwork Forearm Compass Compass rose Star Circle Dot Ring

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The axle snapped outside Market Dunning in the third week of rain, and the show had nothing left to pull it with but the old grey mare and a mule that would not stop eating the canvas. Mabel Thorne, who owned the tent and most of the debts, climbed down into the mud and unrolled the map from the lid of the strongbox. It was the same map that had brought the show over the moors for forty years. In the bottom corner, painted by her grandfather in red and gold, was the compass rose, its eight points worn pale where thumbs had rested on them.

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She had always been told the star was for finding towns. Her grandfather said it showed the way home, and when she was small she asked him where home was. He pointed at the star and said that was a question for a man with a better needle. Now she traced the longest point with a finger, east along the dotted ring, and felt the paint lift like scale.

The men were gone by morning, taking the good horse and the last of the bulbs for the sideshow. Mabel did not blame them. She sat on the wet step of the empty ticket booth with the map on her knees and a cold pie, and worked out how far a mule could walk in a week.

On the Sunday the weather cleared. She folded the map along the inner ring so the star faced out, and set off east with the mare, following the point. At the first crossroads, where a signpost had been shot through, she stopped, looked at the rings, and laughed for the first time since the wheel broke. Then she turned the mule's head towards the sun and walked on.