Black ink tattoo of a five-pointed looping star with curled tails, in a geometric style, on the back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Looping star knot with curls on the back

Geometric · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a five-pointed star made from interlocking looped lines, with three curled tails extending outwards. The linework is solid black with soft shading along some edges, and there is no colour. The design is centred on the skin, with the curls balancing the composition around the star.

Geometric Back Star Knot Loop Swirl Curl

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Your grandfather taught you the looping knot the winter the pit at Hollin Bank flooded, when there was nothing to do in the kitchen but keep your hands busy. He tied it with a length of old hemp, five turns folded back on themselves, and said the rope men called it the Shaft Star because it held without slipping even when the cage swung. You practised until your knuckles were raw and your fingers learned the order without you.

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By March the men were back down, and you were sixteen and sent up the hill to the cable store with a note for Mr Pryce. The store smelt of tallow and wet wool. Pryce read the note, looked at your hands, then at a coil of worn rope by the door. "Tie me that," he said. You drew the loose end through the loops, and the star came up in your palms, five points and three long tails that curled away like smoke from a snuffed lamp.

He ran his thumb across it and said nothing for so long you thought you had failed. Then he pulled the knot tight, cut the tails with his pocketknife, and handed the rope back. "Your granddad's knot," he said. "Nobody's tied it right since he went under. Come back Monday. There's work for hands like yours."

That night you sat by the range and tied the star again, slower, leaving one tail loose on purpose so the next knot would start from it. Up at the head of the shaft the wheel turned over, and somewhere far below the ground a bell rang twice, which meant the men were coming up.