Five geometric arrow designs painted in gold and brown on a white canvas, drawn in a tattoo-style flash look, with no body placement shown.

Five geometric arrows on white canvas

Geometric · Colour · Flash

The image shows five vertical arrows painted on a white canvas, each built from triangles, chevron fletching, dots and short parallel lines. The linework is clean and even, with some arrows filled in solid and others outlined only. The arrows are rendered in brown and metallic gold on a plain light background, and the canvas sits on a soft fluffy blanket.

Geometric Arrow Triangle Chevron Dot

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Tuesday, and the varnish has skinned over on the third arrow, so I've spent the morning with a fine brush and a cup of cold tea, touching up the chevrons the way my father taught me. Five arrows for the Lowell Street ferry office, each meant to point a different way on the wall map. Mr Halloran wanted them in brown and gold. The gold ran out on Thursday, so the last two are brass paint and a prayer.

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The first arrow, the solid one, points north-west towards the harbour wall. I filled its head with black until it looked like a shadow falling off a hill. The second is fletched like a fir tree, all stacked triangles, and I gave its shaft a dot for the boat that never came back. I know that is sentimental. Father would have called it superstition and then painted the dot himself when I wasn't looking.

The fifth arrow I drew last, and it is the only one that ends in a small ring instead of a point. Mrs Ellery came in at four to collect the order and stood in front of it for a long time with her gloves in her hand. "That one's pointing at me," she said. I told her it points at the door. She said that was what she meant.

I have left the boards out to dry on the blanket by the radiator, all five of them, and tonight I'll sign the back with my initials and the hour. The dots will catch the lamplight as if somebody has been counting them.