Black fine line tattoo of a reclining bear with one paw raised, shaded with hatched linework on a forearm, with a folded map beneath.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hatched bear on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A reclining bear with its head turned to the left and one front paw raised is tattooed on the forearm. The design is built from dense, fine hatched and cross-hatched black linework that gives the bear a textured, etched look. The ink is entirely black and grey against pale skin, and the bear sits centrally while a dark sleeve and a folded map frame the photograph.

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

Brother Sextus, the bear you asked about is finished, though the Procurator's clerk says it is too small for a map of the northern marches and too fine for a seal. I told him the beast does not care for the size of its own portrait. It lies on its side in the margin with its head turned toward the sea, one forepaw lifted as if testing the weather.

Keep reading

I cut it with the fine point, hatching each stroke so close that the ink holds the lamp's light the way fur holds rain. Forty lines to the width of a finger along the belly, cross-strokes where the shadow folds under the hip. Julia thought I should draw the bear standing, with spear-wounded dignity. But I saw one at the fishing weir last winter lying just like this, rolled in the thin sun on the mud, so content that I could not make it stand.

Yesterday the clerk returned the sheet with a note: the bear must be scraped out, since the road to the wall runs through that corner. I went to the copper room and found the plate still warm from the furnace. I did not scrape it. I turned the sheet over and drew the bear again on the back, smaller, with the paw lifted higher, so that when the morning light comes through from the window the first bear shows faintly through the second.

Keep the letter. When you come north in spring, hold the map up to the window and look for the bear beneath the road.

More like this

Black fine line tattoo of a bear on the inner forearm, with the sleeve rolled up and a map beneath the arm.
Bear tattoo on a forearm
Black and grey realism style tattoo of a cat's head, looking downward, on the inner forearm of a person wearing a rolled plaid shirt.
Small cat head tattoo on a forearm
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a cat with planets and stars on the inner forearm.
Cat with planets on a forearm
Black and grey photo of a geometric bear outline tattoo made of angular single lines on the inner forearm, with a grey sleeve pushed up at the left.
Geometric bear outline on a forearm
Fine line black and grey tattoo of two cats sitting together with a small script caption beneath, on the upper back near the shoulder blade.
Two cats with script on upper back
Fine line black tattoo of a leaping hare above a small rose and sprigs of leaves on pale skin.
Leaping hare with botanical sprigs
Black and grey blackwork tattoo of two cats curled into a yin yang circle on the inner forearm near the wrist.
Yin yang cats on a forearm
Black linework tattoo of a smiling sloth hanging from a twig with a leaf, on the inner forearm near the wrist.
Sloth hanging from a branch on a forearm
Small black and grey fine line tattoo of a betta fish with flowing fins on the inner forearm near the wrist.
Small black fish tattoo on inner forearm
Black and grey tattoo of a hedgehog with an apple and small flowers on its back, placed on the upper arm near the elbow.
Hedgehog with apple and flowers on an arm
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a bear filled with pine trees and a crescent moon, with a botanical vine beneath it, on a forearm.
Bear silhouette with pine forest on a forearm
Black and grey fine line tattoo of overlapping circles, a shaded sphere and a small triangle on the forearm.
Geometric sphere and circles on a forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.