Traditional-style tattoo of a red and grey crown with a small gold cross on top, with two black stars beside it, on the inner forearm.

Crown and stars on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A small crown with a gold cross on top sits on the inner forearm, shaded in red, grey and black with bold outlines. Two solid black stars sit either side of the crown, one partly out of frame on the left. The photograph is taken close up against a dark background, with a hand resting across the arm and a silver ring on one finger.

Traditional Forearm Crown Cross Star

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Brother, the crown went out on Tuesday, and I have not slept properly since, so forgive the smudges. The cross on top took three days alone. Maestro Lucan wanted it proud, the arms thick enough to catch the light from the door, and he would not let me file the gold past what he called a good weight. I argued and lost, as I always do with him.

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The band we set with garnets, dark as wine held up to a lamp, and between the points I raised a row of little seed pearls bought from a Venetian boy who swore they came from the Gulf. Lucan says a crown should look heavy even when it is light. I think he means it should look like a promise. The stars were the last thing. He had me paint them in black pitch on the plaster above the bench, six of them, because the commission was for a palace roof and the steward wanted the sky reminded of its place.

Here is the odd part. When the courier came for the crown, he took it wrapped in linen and never once looked up. Yesterday I climbed the ladder to scrape the old pitch from the ceiling and found the stars had lifted clean, leaving only pale ovals in the lime. Seven ovals, not six. I counted three times. I am not superstitious, but I left the seventh unscraped.