Black and grey realism tattoo of a gothic cathedral facade above a skull and rosette medallion on a forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Gothic cathedral and skull on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A gothic cathedral facade with pointed spires and a rose window sits above a detailed human skull and a circular rosette medallion. The shading is smooth and realistic, with soft grey gradients and strong contrast in the stonework and skull. The design fills the forearm from the wrist upwards, shown against a dark chair and grey floor.

Realism Forearm Skull Rosette Spire

Find an artist for this

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

The rose window had been sealed for three winters, and still the bells of Saint Idris could not agree on the hour. Tobiah Carrow climbed the scaffold at first light with cold bread in his coat, counting the spires as he went, because Master Hollin had taught him that a mason who could not count stone would never be trusted with a saint.

Keep reading

Hollin had carved the skull himself, beneath the rosette on the north buttress, where the glass threw its light only at midsummer. The guild wanted a lamb there, or a lily. Hollin said a lamb was a thing a man ate and a lily a thing a man bought, and that a city which forgot its dead would eventually fall down on its own. So the skull stayed, its teeth set hard into the stone like a row of pale keys.

On the morning of the feast, Tobiah stood in the cold nave and watched the shadow of that brow creep across the rosette's centre, petal by petal, until it rested on the one stone Hollin had left unpolished. The bells rang noon. Tobiah understood then that the cathedral kept its own time, and that the time was counted in the names of the dead.

The bishop came that afternoon, admired the spires and asked after the glazing. Tobiah said nothing about the shadow. He polished the last petal himself, and when the scaffold came down he left a small chisel mark on the buttress, the way Hollin had taught him, so the next mason would know where to stand.