Black and white photo of a fine line double zigzag tattoo on the inner upper arm, below a grey t-shirt sleeve.

Double zigzag line tattoo on upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo is two thin black zigzag lines, one above the other, forming a stylised angular shape. The linework is crisp and even, with solid black ink and no shading. The photograph is black and white, with the arm shown in profile against a plain pale background and the tattoo near the centre of the frame.

Fine line Geometric Upper arm Zigzag Chevron Line

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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

Tuesday, 14th March. Wind backing round to the north-east and the river running brown and quick over the weir at Carrow Lock. Mrs Ada Pell came down the towpath at seven with her dog and a paper bag of Garibaldis, and asked me again whether the Patience would be sold before the summer. I told her what I tell everyone: she is not for sale while my knees still take the gangplank. She laughed, then looked at the water a long time, the way she does.

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The zigzag marks on the lower gate are my father's work, not mine. He cut them with a chisel the year the paddles were rebuilt, two sharp V-strokes, one tucked just beneath the other, so a man could read the level from the towpath without shouting across the cut. He said a lock should tell you where it stands without needing a voice to say it. I have never understood why two lines and not one. Ada says they look like the bolts of lightning in the picture books her boy kept, or the wake of a boat going somewhere it should not.

This afternoon the level fell a hand's width and the top line came clear of the green slime. I stood on the beam with the windlass and felt the old rhythm come back into my shoulders, click, click, click, the ratchet singing like a kettle. When the gates eased open the Patience rose on the swell and settled, and Ada's dog barked at nothing on the far bank.

I shall write to the boy tomorrow and tell him the lock is holding. Then I shall walk home along the top of the bank, where the grass was already dry, and not once look back at the gates.