Black dotwork circle with the words 1 tbsp and 1 tsp inked on the palm, with traditional colour tattoos of an apple and a bird on the wrist and forearm.

Dotted circle with measurements on palm

Dotwork · Hand · Mixed · Photo

A palm is shown facing up, with a double ring of small black dots inked across it. Lettering reading 1 tbsp and 1 tsp sits within the inner ring, and the dotted linework is crisp and evenly spaced. Above the wrist, coloured traditional-style tattoos of a red apple and a bird with red and brown tones are visible against the pale skin, on a white fabric background.

Dotwork Traditional Hand Forearm Circle Dot Lettering Apple Bird

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The rain had found the gap above the dispensary again, and Brother Oswin was on his knees with a bucket when he told me to measure the willow bark myself. I was nineteen and had been trusted with nothing finer than the bread knife. He held out his left hand, palm up, the way he did when he wanted a thing understood without argument.

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Inked into the skin was a double ring of dots, the inner circle spelled out with the words for a tablespoon and a teaspoon. He had it done in Lincoln the winter the fever took half the lay brothers, when he was too proud to ask someone else to hold the scales. "Measure with the hand that has to answer for it," he said. "Fill to the dots. Level with the flat of the knife. Never trust the belly of the spoon, boy, the belly lies." He pressed my palm flat against his so the dots lined up, and I felt the ridge of the ink under my skin.

I learned that winter to fill the ring. Honey, then ground ginger, then the pale bark that made the sick sleep. By spring my hand knew the weight of a teaspoon the way it knew the cold of the stone stair. When Oswin's breathing grew slow and rough in the infirmary cot, he asked for the willow, and I brought it to him in my palm, a level dose inside the inner ring. He took it from me without looking.

Afterwards I scrubbed the dispensary, emptied the jars, and wrote in the ledger: one tablespoon, one teaspoon, both levelled. Then I laid my hand flat on the scales and waited for it to stop shaking.