Black knotwork tattoo of two interlaced animals with spiral details across the upper back, with a black triangular design on the shoulder.

Interlaced beast knotwork on a back

Blackwork · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A large black ink tattoo across the upper back shows two stylised animals with interlaced bodies, set within a loose circular frame. Solid black fills are contrasted with thin outlined sections and spiral ornament on the figures. A separate bold black triangular design sits on the right shoulder at the top of the frame.

Blackwork Back Shoulder Animal Beast Knotwork Interlace Spiral Circle Triangle

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ingrid, the snow has shut the high pass for eleven days and the innkeeper has begun counting her candles out loud. I am writing this by the one that still gives light, at the table nearest the hearth, with my knife beside the paper so I do not lose my nerve. The door for Brenda's church is still in the cart outside under sacking, and I cannot reach it until the drifts settle.

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Every evening I sit with the offcut of ash and try the knot again. The beasts are not hunting each other, whatever the priest says. Their bodies are laced through one another so tightly that neither can pull free, and their heads turn outward, like two dogs guarding a gate from the inside. Last night I cut the first ring and it went wrong at the throat, a little too thin, and the innkeeper's boy laughed and said it looked like a worm that had swallowed a bell.

Still, I think I have the spiral right now. Halvard, who drives the cart and knows nothing of carving, watched me scrape the curl free this morning and said a spiral is only a sentence that cannot find its end. I thought that was foolish until I held the blade to the wood and found the curl had closed on itself without my meaning it to.

Come to the church when the thaw comes. Bring the good chisels. I will show you the circle, which is the only part of the design I have not yet dared to touch, and you can tell me whether it is meant to hold them in or to let them go.

Your brother, Osvald