Black and white photo of a full arm sleeve tattoo in blackwork and dotwork, with spirals and triangular geometric bands running from the shoulder to the forearm.

Full arm tribal sleeve in blackwork

Blackwork · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A man's arm is covered from the shoulder to the wrist with a dense tribal-style sleeve of black ink. Bold curling spirals and flowing bands sit on the upper arm, while the forearm shifts into rows of triangles, chevrons and stippled dots. The photograph is black and white, with a shallow focus that keeps the tattoo sharp against a blurred dark background.

Blackwork Dotwork Geometric Shoulder Upper arm Forearm Spiral Triangle Geometric pattern Tribal pattern Dot Chevron

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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

Hush now, the eleven-forty is running late again, so there is time for the rest of this. Hemi Rangi carried a tin trunk of stencils from Auckland to Liverpool on a boat that stank of tar and oranges, and he never once let a porter lift it for him.

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Inside were spirals like unfurling ferns, bands that ran over a shoulder like rivers over a hill, and chevrons sharp as a saw's teeth. He worked by gaslight in a back room above a pie shop in Wigan, and every night the signalman's boy from the junction climbed the stairs to watch the lines go down. His name was Dennis, and he wanted the whole arm done in one sitting.

Hemi said no. He made Dennis wait a full year, through the winter the points froze and the trains came in grey with frost, and he taught him to count the dots in threes so the rain fell in a true line. Dennis learned to hold a needle steady against his own pulse, and to stop before his hand shook, and when the upper arm was finally finished he could hardly lift a cup of tea without admiring it.

Hemi died in the spring before the forearm was done. Dennis finished it alone, the last row of triangles turning back up toward the elbow, so every point in the pattern faced home. Now, there's the lamp. Green for the Manchester. Mind your bags, love, and mind the step.