Black and white photo of matching fine line geometric tattoos on both upper arms, showing draped chains with diamond and arrow shapes.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Draped chain and diamond tattoos on upper arms

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photo of a person's upper body, cropped below the lips, with matching tattoos on both upper arms. Each design is a draped chain with hanging pendants, small diamond shapes and an arrow point at the top, drawn in fine black linework with some dotted shading. The tattoos are the main focus against a plain black top and a softly blurred background.

Fine line Geometric Upper arm Chain Diamond Arrow Pendant Matching pair

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Hush now, and mind the kettle, because the story's longer than the tea. Ishbel Dunnet was the chain-maker on Skerra, and she kept a forge in the lee of the harbour wall where the wind couldn't find her. The islanders wanted a chain strung from the Hollow Stack to the lighthouse rock, so the fishing boats could find their way home in fog, and every link had to be drawn out by hand.

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She hung the chain in swags, the way the old women drape a shawl, so the weight fell into the arch and didn't snap the iron. Every fifth link she hung a glass float the colour of a gull's eye, and at either end she set a brass arrow pointing to the landing. The men laughed. They said a chain of diamonds would never keep out a gale. Ishbel said nothing. She only asked one thing in return: that whoever sailed under it in a storm would count the floats aloud as they passed.

The winter of the great easterly, eleven boats went out and nine came back. The fog came down thick as wool, the chain sang in the wind, and Tomas Rae, who had been sure of his own compass, heard a voice counting from the rocks. Seven. Eight. Nine. He steered by the glass and the brass and the count, and he came in under the arrow with the lamp still lit in his hand.

That's why the bell is rung on the arrow side and never on the other. Now give me that cup before it goes cold, and no more pulling at the net.