Black and grey engraved-style tattoo of a lighthouse on rocks inside an oval laurel frame, placed across a person's upper back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lighthouse in an oval frame on a back

Back · Black and grey · Photo

A lighthouse stands on a rocky outcrop surrounded by waves, with clouds and sun rays in the sky above. The scene sits within a fine oval border of leaves, with a small bird near the lower left edge. The fine hatched and stippled linework is shaded in black and grey, and the design fills most of the frame.

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 Anselm has given you the lamp because his eyes are going, and because the sea has already taken two of the older men this winter. Climb the spiral each dusk with the oil can knocking against your hip, counting the iron steps the way he taught you, forty-one to the gallery and then the ladder. Do not look out of the arrow slits until the wick is trimmed. The swell comes in grey and silver off the Skerry, and it will tell you lies about the weather if you let it.

Keep reading

The rock beneath the monastery is older than any of the brothers' stories, and the chapel bell is rung by the tide when the wind is wrong. Father Gilbert keeps the logbook in a cramped hand: ship passed the Skerry at four bells, no light seen, pray for them. You have written three such lines this month. Each time you wrote them you looked up at the scriptorium window, where the sun broke through the cloud and laid pale rays across the water like the strings of a harp someone had dropped.

On the last night of the storm the sky tore open to the west and you saw a single sail tacking hard for the gap between the rocks. You did not wait for the bell. You lit the lamp, hauled the great lens round, and kept it burning until dawn, your palms raw on the brass. When the boat slid past the breakers a boy in oilskins lifted his hand to the tower, and you lifted yours back.

More like this

Black and grey traditional tattoo of a striped lighthouse inside an oval rope frame with waves and a flower, on the forearm.
Lighthouse in rope frame on a forearm
Black and grey traditional tattoo of a rope-wrapped anchor with two mermaids, one above and one below, on an upper arm.
Anchor and two mermaids on an upper arm
Black and grey blackwork tattoo on an upper arm showing a castle held in two hands, with a crescent moon, stars and a hand above.
Castle, crescent moon and hands on upper arm
Black and grey tattoo on the upper back showing a lamp post, pine trees and bare branches, with the words I give you the stars and I give you myself.
Lamp post and pine trees with a quote on the back
Half sleeve on an upper arm and shoulder showing a wolf head, a moonlit haunted house, a grim reaper with a scythe and bearded faces, in realistic grey shading with yellow accents.
Wolf, haunted house and reaper on upper arm
Black and grey tattoo of a bare tree, full moon, iron graveyard fence and carved jack-o'-lantern pumpkins on a patch of skin.
Halloween graveyard scene with jack-o'-lanterns
Black and grey Traditional style tattoo of octopus tentacles rising from engraved waves beneath stars and clouds, on an upper arm.
Octopus tentacles rising from waves on an upper arm
Black and grey neo-trad style tattoo on an upper arm showing a castle under a moon inside a globe, with a triangle and circle symbol and shaded leaves below.
Castle in a globe with leaves on upper arm
Black linework tattoo of a sailing ship tossed by waves beneath a rain cloud, in a blackwork style, on the upper arm.
Sailing ship in a storm on the upper arm
Black and grey realism tattoo of a lighthouse beside crashing waves and a stormy sky, across the upper arm.
Lighthouse and stormy sea on upper arm
Black and grey fine line tattoo of two mountain peaks beneath an outlined sun, with wavy water lines below, on the inner forearm near the wrist.
Mountains and sun tattoo on the forearm
Colour tattoo of a pink gothic mansion with turquoise ghostly figures, including a top-hatted ghost, a skeleton and a chained ghost, on the upper back.
Haunted mansion ghosts on upper back

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