Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a diagonal scatter of stars across the upper arm, near the elbow.

Dotwork star trail on upper arm

Dotwork · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A diagonal trail of fine black dots runs across the upper arm, with denser clusters of tiny points and a few larger dots that suggest a starfield or constellation. The dots are built up through stippling rather than lines, with no shading or outlines. The arm is photographed in black and white against a dark background, with the tattoo centred in the frame and the bent elbow at the lower left.

Dotwork Upper arm Star Constellation Dot

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 fog came down on the long cut below Sallow Mill the same week Nell Pardoe turned nine, and her father poled the narrowboat Patience by feel alone. He could not see the towpath or the reed beds, only the faint yellow of the lock keeper's window, which went out at ten. Nell sat on the coal box with her knees under her chin and asked how he knew where they were.

Keep reading

He told her the sky was the river turned over, and every star was a bend or a mooring he had passed once and remembered. That night he took a darning needle and a pot of Indian ink from the galley drawer and told her to hold still. He pointed with his chin at each star he wanted, and each one he pricked into the soft skin of her upper arm, a scatter of dots running slantwise from elbow toward shoulder, the thickest knot where the Plough would have sat. It stung less than she expected. He said that way she would always carry the route with her.

The fog lifted before dawn. They tied up at Sallow Mill with the bow rope just touching the iron ring, exactly where he had meant to be. Nell's father died before she was grown, and the Patience was sold to a family from Stoke who painted her red. Nell moved inland and worked in a bakery, and whenever a new town or a bad winter left her lost, she pushed up her sleeve and traced the dots with her thumb, counting them in order until the ground under her felt known again.