Black compass rose tattoo with N, E, S and W letters inside a dotted ring, shown on the inner forearm in a traditional style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Compass rose tattoo on the inner forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A black compass rose with an eight-pointed star, cardinal letters N, E, S and W, and concentric rings inside a dotted outer circle. The linework is bold and solid with some fine dotted detail around the edge, and the ink is uniformly black with no shading. The tattoo sits centrally on a pale forearm, photographed at a slight angle against a soft, bright background.

Traditional Dotwork Forearm Compass Compass rose Star Letter Circle

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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

Dear Ruth, the abbot has finally let me finish the harbour chart, though he made me take out the sea monsters first. I had the parchment pinned flat on the refectory table for three nights, the candle guttering whenever the north door let the wind in. The rose itself I saved for last, as you always told me to save the best ink for the centre.

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The dotted ring took the longest. Each point had to be pricked with the awl and then joined, and my hand shook after the twentieth, so Brother Matthias held the rule while I counted under my breath. Eight points went out from the hub like spokes from a wheel, the north one longest, its letter squeezed into the margin as if it were afraid of being seen. Fra Lucas says the inner rings are there to show how far a man might travel before he forgets which way he came.

Last night the lamp went out before I could finish the south letter. I sat in the dark with the brush still wet and found I did not need the light, because my hand already knew where S belonged. I wrote it by feel, and in the morning it leaned like a drunk man, but the boatmen who collected the chart said it read true enough for a coast they had sailed all their lives.

They take it south with the salt cod tomorrow, and I have asked them to bring back one line of news. Write to me of the coast, and tell me whether the north still stands where I put it.