Black geometric tattoo of crossed diagonal lines beside two right-pointing chevrons on the forearm.

Crossed lines and double chevrons on forearm

Geometric · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows a black tattoo on the underside of a forearm, made up of a crossed, lattice-like motif and two right-pointing chevrons placed side by side. The linework is bold and uniform with solid black ink and no shading, and the lines have slightly soft edges. The image is in warm, yellowish tones with a grey sleeve at the lower right, and the tattoo sits centrally in the frame.

Geometric Forearm Chevron Cross Lattice Symbol Arrow

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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

Sit yourself down on that coil of rope, and mind the tar, it's not dry yet. You'll want the story of the Sallow Mary as my father told it, not the version they tell in the Crown, where she gets a handsome lock-keeper and a happy ending.

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My grandfather painted those marks on the Fenner cut the spring the lamp at Abbot's Weir went dark for good. The two chevrons went on the bridge arches, pointing downstream, so a skipper coming down in the black could feel the current pull him where he ought to go. The crossed lines went on the lock beam, where a tow rope was meant to cross and be made fast. He said a river is only a road that's always leaving, and you need something to tell you which way it's leaving.

That February the flood came up over the towpath in one night, and the Mary was lying at the far side of the weir with Dan Pollard aboard, who was fourteen and had no business on the water. Nell Gedge took the boat out alone, before anyone could argue. She couldn't see her own hands. She counted the arches by their cold stone and steered for the chevrons, because she'd painted them herself and knew how the paint caught the light. Under the fourth bridge she found them, both arrows, pointing the way the water wanted to run, and she let the boat go with it.

She brought Dan home by dawn. The next morning she climbed up with a pot of black and added a third chevron beside the other two, pointing back up the cut, toward the village. When people asked her why, she said the river only ever shows you where it's going. Somebody has to show it where you've come from.