Colour neo-trad tattoo on an upper arm and shoulder of a hand with a raised middle finger, surrounded by scissors, thread, a paintbrush and ink bottle, with PRIDE IN CRAFT on banners.

Hand and craft tools on an upper arm

Neo-trad · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A realistically shaded hand, shown with the middle finger raised, sits at the centre of the design. It is surrounded by scissors, a spool of red thread with a needle, a paintbrush, an ink bottle and two banners reading PRIDE IN CRAFT. The bold black outlines, saturated colour and shaded hand give the piece a traditional but detailed finish, and the design fills the upper arm and reaches onto the shoulder.

Neo-trad Traditional Upper arm Shoulder Hand Scissors Thread Spool Needle Paintbrush Banner Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit yourselves down, the lot of you, and mind the spool by your boot, it bites. This is the tale of Wren Halloran, who had the steadiest hands in the Thread Quarter of Carrowmere and the rudest manners in the whole of the Weavers' Hall, and of the morning she told the Guildmaster exactly what she thought of his rulebook. The old man had already read the third complaint aloud before she'd put down her shears. Pride in craft, he said, was the Hall's oldest promise, and a seamstress who sold her hemlines to the lamplighters' wives for pennies was no proud craftsman at all.

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Wren said nothing. She only took her red thread from the spool, threaded her needle in one clean pass, and went on stitching the cloak across her knee. That cloak was for the Harbour Mayor's daughter, and it had taken her nine nights. Every seam was pressed flat, every hem stitched so tight a sailor could have caulked a hull with it. She had used a fine brush to ink the border, and a squeeze of dye from the little brown bottle on her sill, and the whole Hall could see the work was perfect. Then the Guildmaster called for her apprentice to fetch the register, and the apprentice, bless him, couldn't find his way out of his own shoes.

So Wren stood up, set the cloak on the bench, and raised her right hand. Only the middle finger, mind, and held it high enough for every clerk in the room to see the ink stains on the knuckle. The Guildmaster went the colour of old candle wax. The clerks went back to their ledgers very quickly. And by the next spring the words PRIDE IN CRAFT were painted in gold over the Weavers' door, though nobody ever admitted who had written them.

The register says she was fined one silver penny for the gesture. Her cloak was never sold, and it hangs in the Hall to this day, red thread and all. Now off you go, and mind that spool.