Compass rose with anchor on the ribs
Dotwork · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo
A compass rose sits at the centre of the frame, with a fleur-de-lis above the N and the letters N, E, S and W marking the points. The eight-pointed star is filled with dark and light grey shading, and a small anchor is placed in the centre. The ring around the star is built from fine stippled dots, and the photograph is in black and white.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Dear Tomas,
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The chart came back from Penzance on Tuesday with the rose inked in again, because the old one had worn through at the folds. Mr Hendry wanted the fleur-de-lis set above the north point the way his grandfather had it, and I told him the French drew the first roses, so the lily had a claim. He laughed and paid me in tea. I am still not sure whether he was joking.
You asked whether the dots on the outer ring are a mistake. They are not. Every point you stipple is a small decision about how much light the paper gets, and the ring has to hold the whole star without shouting over it. I spent three evenings on it with a nib no thicker than a hair. By the third my wrist ached and the fog had come in off the Atlantic so thick I could not see the harbour wall, only the lamp on the Mermaid's mast swinging like a pendulum.
The anchor in the middle is the only thing I did not copy from anyone. My father drew it on the back of a tide table the winter the boat was lost, and I found it folded in his oilskin pocket. I kept it because the flukes curl the way his did when he was tired and sat with his hands open on the table.
Come over at the spring tide. Bring your own pens, I have run out of nibs. The north wind has dropped and the chart is drying on the kitchen line.
Anna
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