Black fine line tattoo of a crescent moon with a face, with the words lunam meum beneath it, on the upper arm near the elbow.

Crescent moon with script on upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A crescent moon with a carved, engraved-looking face sits on the back of an upper arm, close to the elbow. Fine black linework and hatched shading give the moon its volume, and the thin script lunam meum runs underneath it. The tattoo is shown in black ink on a bare arm, with a black lace garment behind it.

Fine line Upper arm Moon Crescent moon Script

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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 Ottilie, the lamp on the north stair has gone out again, so I am writing this by the light of the moon itself, which the Board has finally let us keep at a quarter brightness. You will laugh when I tell you the old man in the almanac still watches us from the lunar shelf, the one with the engraved face and the sour mouth. Mr Okafor says he was printed in 1893 and nobody has had the heart to melt him down.

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Yesterday the survey crew brought back a crate of dust from the Sea of Tranquillity, and in it a plate of brass no bigger than a thumbnail. Someone had scratched two words into it, lunam meum, in a hand so careful it could only have been a child's. My mother used to say the moon belonged to everyone who looked up at it, but the Company's lawyers say it belongs to whoever files the paperwork first. I have decided I would rather believe the scratch.

I am sending the plate with this letter, wrapped in your grandfather's scarf. Do not let the Board see it. If they ask, tell them it is a bolt from the reclamation rig, which is at least half true. Keep the crescent face turned toward you when you read this, the way he always did for us. Hold the brass up to the window tonight and tell me whether the old man smiles.