Black fine line arrow tattoo with a leaf-like head running down the upper back, beside a woman with pink sweet pea flowers in her hair.

Fine line arrow on upper back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A fine line tattoo of an ornate arrow sits on the upper back, left of the spine. The arrowhead has layered, leaf-like plumes above a small ring and a diamond-shaped tip, with a long, thin shaft running downward. The design is in black ink on a plain, softly lit background, with the woman's back and shoulder filling most of the frame.

Fine line Back Arrow Ornament Hair

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the lamps are out along Fitzwilliam Street and the workshop is mine until morning, so I'll write while the glue sets. Mr Haddow has finally let me cut the plumes myself. Eleven layers, each filed so thin the gaslight comes through, shaped like the leaves on the sweet peas I've been forcing on the sill since March.

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The order is for a man at the Hallamshire Archery Club who wants a flight arrow that looks like it grew rather than was made. The brass ring goes just beneath the last plume so the shaft turns true in the air, and the head is a small steel diamond I ground until my thumb went numb. He paid double and asked for nothing else, which Mr Haddow says is the sign of a man who has already decided what he'll say when it misses.

It came back on Tuesday. He had shot it into the butts at Endcliffe and the diamond had snapped clean off, but the plumes were whole, and he wanted to know if I could make another with the head reset. I sat with it under the bench lamp for an hour. The feathers had held their shape through the whole flight, which is more than I can say for most things I've made, including the last two letters I sent you.

I've tied this one to the sill with red thread, pointing at the vines. When the corner lamp goes out, its shadow lies across the pea flowers like a line someone has drawn to show where the path runs. Come home before the first frost and I'll show you which way it leads.