Black ink compass rose design drawn on paper beside a pen, with an ornamental patterned star and fine radiating lines, shown as a tattoo design rather than on skin.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Compass rose tattoo design sketch

Geometric · Black and grey · Flash

A compass rose is drawn in black ink on white paper, with a circle, a large eight-point star and fine radiating lines. The points of the star are filled with dense, ornamental patterning, while the outer lines and circle are simple single strokes. A black fineliner pen and a clear pen case sit in the blurred background, and a blue patterned mat is visible at the top of the frame.

Geometric Compass Compass rose Star Circle Pen Paper Sketch

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The star came out wrong the first three times, and Mr Abernethy made me redraw it until my wrist ached and the paper had gone soft as cloth under my thumb. He says a compass rose is only honest if the circle is one clean stroke and the rays are ruled from the centre by a hand that has nothing to prove. The points are different. He lets me fill those however I like, so long as the pattern runs the same way on every arm, like a current pulling one direction.

I have been doing the east arm mostly, the one with the little rosette at its heart, because it sits nearest the lamp I can see from the back step when the fog lifts. Mother says the fog will not lift for a fortnight, so I am counting days by ink. The fineliner dries quick in this damp, and I have to keep the cap on between strokes, which Mr Abernethy says is the only sensible habit a draughtsman can have.

The north point I have left open. Not blank, exactly. I have drawn the outline and the first leaf, then stopped, because the chart goes to the Lerwick office before you are back, and I thought someone ought to keep a place for you to finish it. You always were the one who knew which way was home. Come back and fill in the rest, and bring the wind with you.

Your sister, Ellen