Colour tattoo of a galaxy and nebula with stars, shown as if torn through the skin on the upper arm and shoulder.

Galaxy tattoo torn open on upper arm

Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A galaxy scene with a nebula of blues, purples, pinks and reds, dotted with small bright stars, sits inside a jagged opening that appears to tear through the skin. The soft shading blends the colours smoothly, and the raised, torn edges add depth. The tattoo fills most of the frame on the upper arm, with the shoulder and collarbone area visible at the top.

Upper arm Galaxy Nebula Star Space Torn skin

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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 Hester, The roof of the north tower came down in February, and since then I have slept in the chapel with the bats and the rain. You will laugh, but the sky is better for it. With no slates between us and the heavens, Master Ambrose set his brass telescope on the cracked flags, and we have been mapping the Milky Way as though it were a field of wheat.

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Last Thursday the cloud broke at midnight and something happened over the old keep. A seam opened in the dark above the curtain wall, ragged as a sheet pulled apart by hand, and through it came a nebula, blue as deep water, plum at its edges, with a rose-red smear at its heart like a bruise. Stars sat in it like sequins on a dress. Ambrose wept, which I had never seen him do, and then he sketched it so fast the charcoal snapped in his fingers.

The villagers say the tear is a judgement. The miller's wife says it is only the castle letting go of its old ghosts. I think the sky simply grew tired of being hidden behind stone and weather. By Sunday the seam had closed to a thin silver line, though Ambrose swears he saw a star wink from inside it before the edges met.

I am keeping the sketch in my Bible, between Ruth and Esther, where the wind cannot take it. Write soon and tell me whether the pear tree at Alnmouth is fruiting. Your loving brother, Tom.