Four black ink arrow tattoos with Roman numerals on wrists and inner forearms, some thin single-line and some shaded with feathered fletching.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Four matching arrow tattoos on wrists

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Four wrists or inner forearms are shown side by side, each with a black arrow tattoo that includes Roman numerals. The two outer arrows are thin single-line designs, while the two central arrows have shaded, feathered fletching and spearhead tips. The black ink sits on warm skin tones against a plain background.

Fine line Forearm Arrow Roman numeral Feather Wrist

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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

Dear Aulus, the fourth shaft is finished and I have stopped pretending the work is the reason I cannot sleep. The feathers were the trouble. I sent to the Fen farms for goose wing because the grey stuff from the market takes the damp and warps the moment the wind comes off the estuary, and I wanted these to fly true for men who will not be able to come back and complain about them.

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I cut the numbers myself with the small chisel, one to each shaft, low on the wood where a thumb rests. Marcus asked for the marks, so every shaft carries its place in the set and the count of the set beside it, I and IV, II and IV, and so on up to the last. He said that if the rain ever smudged the ink or the thread came loose, the numbers would still tell a man which arrow was his and that he was not alone in the line. I told him wood does not need to be that clever. He only smiled and paid me in silver he had been saving for a wedding.

The four came at dusk, one after another, and none of them spoke much. Each took his shaft and weighed it in his palm, then looked at the number and nodded as if it were a name. When the last one left, I found the spare ash shaft still lying on the bench, straight as a rule and unmarked, and I did not know what to cut into it.

I have decided to leave it blank until someone tells me which number is mine. Come home before the frost and tell me yourself.