Black blackwork tattoo of a geometric mandala pattern covering the back of a hand and fingers, with black painted nails.

Geometric mandala tattoo across the back of a hand

Blackwork · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo covers the back of the hand and extends onto the fingers, built around a central diamond-shaped mandala with scrolls, diagonal lines and small leaf-like motifs. The linework is fine and solid black, with some stippled dots adding texture around the knuckles. The image is shot in low light against a dark background, with the hand resting on a white padded surface.

Blackwork Geometric Dotwork Hand Mandala Diamond Scroll Line Leaves Ornament Pattern Finger

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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 Tomas, the lamp in the wagon has finally stopped smoking, so I can write without my eyes watering. Mother Oriel says the pattern on the lace is the one her grandmother brought over from the coast, a diamond inside a diamond, with the scrolls turning back on themselves so the thread never has to end. I have been unpicking it for three weeks. Every time I get to the middle, my fingers know the way better than my head does, and I think that is what she means by a pattern.

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The fair moved on from Ashby without us. The gaff-man wanted the big tent struck by dusk, and the horses were skittish with the rain coming in off the marsh. We lost two bolts of cotton in the ditch and the cook's dog, who I am fairly sure ate half a pie. Still, the lace stayed dry under the oilcloth, and that matters more to Oriel than anything the fair pays us.

Yesterday she pressed a folded square of paper into my palm and told me to read it only when the last leaf was finished. It was a drawing of a hand, back up, with the mandala laid over it, fingers running down to the tips like the lace runs down to its hem. Beneath it she had written one word in her cramped script: continue. I have not yet worked out whether she means the lace or the hand. I think she means both, and I think she means I will be the one to carry it on. Come find me in Hadleigh when the wagons stop. Bring the good scissors, the ones you promised to return.