Traditional style colour tattoo of a compass with red, green and yellow tones, flowers and leaves, and the words SHOWS US THE WAY on an arm.

Compass with SHOWS US THE WAY lettering

Traditional · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A compass rose sits inside a red and black ring with a pale green centre, surrounded by orange flowers and olive leaves. The words SHOWS US THE WAY curve above and below the compass in black bold lettering. Bold black outlines and flat, solid colour fills are used throughout, and the design fills most of the frame.

Traditional Forearm Compass Flower Leaves Lettering Star

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The fog came over the Hause faster than the mule could walk, and by the time you had the lamp lit the track had gone to nothing but grey. Dessa stood at your elbow with her thumb on the lid of the old brass compass, the one her father carried over this pass the wet spring the footbridge went down. She told you to stop fussing and trust the needle.

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You wanted a stone wall, or the bleached bones of a sheep, or anything with an edge you could put your boot against. Instead you watched the red ring of the dial shiver, the pale green card steady under its glass, and the needle swing round until it lay quiet as a blade. North, it said, and in fog that was all the world was willing to tell you. You turned the mule's head into the wind and walked where the star pointed.

Two hours later the ground dropped away under your boots and the cloud tore open like wet paper. Below lay the valley with its scatter of farm lights, and at the foot of the cairn someone had left rock roses in orange bloom, bright as coins. Dessa laughed and said her father built that cairn, and that he always claimed the compass never once lied to anybody. It only told you which way the land lay, he used to say, and the rest was your own business.