Fine line tattoo of a compass star above a mountain ridge on the inner wrist, in dark blue-black ink.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Compass star over mountain ridge on wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A small fine line tattoo shows an eight-pointed compass star sitting above a jagged mountain ridge line. The linework is thin and mostly uniform, with little shading, and the ink is a dark blue-black. The design is centred on the inner wrist against a plain pale skin background with a wooden surface beneath.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, the theodolite went back in its box on Tuesday and I have been trying all week to draw the ridge from memory, which is a poor way to spend an evening when the lamp needs paraffin. Mr Pryce at the council says the new road will cut the sheep track by April, so they want the bearings checked again before the frost.

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I have put a compass rose at the top of the page, the old brass one from the surveying office with its eight points, because Pryce insists the north line runs true only if you trust the star more than the ridge. The ridge itself I drew from the top of Moel Du, where the cloud came down so quick that I lost my hat and found it again on a fence post two miles off.

The trouble is the figures. Every bearing I took on Thursday came out two degrees east of the ones in the 1912 book, and I cannot find the error. I walked it twice. Then old Gwen at the post office told me her father swore the boundary stones had been moved after the big snow, so on Friday I went up with a spade and dug out the third stone from the wall. It was lying face down under the turf, and someone had cut an arrow into it, pointing north-west, towards where the star would be on a clear day.

I have not told Pryce yet. I think I will let the sheep have the valley a few more years, and I will leave the stone face up, which is more than the men with the new maps will do. Write soon and tell me whether Mam is still wearing the blue scarf. Your loving brother, Tom.

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