Black outline tattoo of a dagger with beaded detail and a rose, placed on the side of the ribs below the breast.

Dagger and rose outline on the ribs

Traditional · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A single-line outline tattoo of a dagger with beaded detailing and a rose sits on the side of the ribcage, below the breast and above the navel. The linework is fine and even in one dark ink, with no shading or fill. The rose is drawn with layered petals and leaves, and the dagger hilt and blade are outlined in the same weight, all against a plain skin tone with a floral garment at the edges of the frame.

Traditional Ribs Dagger Rose Bead Gem

Find an artist for this

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

The jeweller on Front Street kept one thing in his window for eleven years that nobody wanted: a little jet dagger, its hilt cut in the shape of a rose and its crossguard strung with seed beads. My dad said no one in Ashgill would pay for a blade when the pit was shedding men every fortnight. I was sixteen, counting my wages in coppers, so I stood outside every Friday and looked at it through the glass like it owed me money.

Keep reading

Mr Tennant let me hold it in March, when the hooter had gone quiet for good and the men walked the lanes like they'd lost a dog. It was no longer than my hand. The beads rattled when I turned it, and the rose had so many petals drawn into it that I gave up counting and just ran my thumb along the ridges. He wanted four shillings. I had three and a bus pass I was not allowed to sell.

He didn't say much. He tapped the pommel, where a grey-green stone sat loose in its setting, and said it was a real garnet, older than the village, and worth more than the knife. I asked if he'd take the stone instead. He looked at me over his glasses for a long moment, then took the three shillings and a promise to bring the rest by Michaelmas.

I walked home with the bare dagger wrapped in my school scarf. The empty setting caught the light off the canal, a small dark eye where the stone had been, and I thought it looked less like a loss than like something waiting to be filled.