Black and grey geometric mandala and feather tattoo along the side ribs and hip of a person lying on a pale sofa.

Mandala and feather tattoo on the ribs

Geometric · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A close view of a torso lying on a sofa, showing a black and grey tattoo of a mandala motif with stacked feather or leaf shapes along the side of the ribs and hip. The linework is fine and shaded in grey, with a central medallion pattern repeated in the design. A belly button piercing with a clear jewel is visible, and the image is otherwise plain, with soft natural light.

Geometric Ribs Mandala Feather Geometric pattern Lace pattern

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Brother Osric,

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The pattern book came up on the carrier's cart this morning, wrapped in oilcloth and smelling of the river. You asked me to copy the rosettes for the chapter house windows, and I have, but I confess I have not slept well since opening it. Every page is a stack of feathers, one falling over the next like shingles on a barn roof, and at the heart of each stack sits a small medallion, cut round with a compass so true that I could not find the seam where the circle began.

I spent the first two days grinding soot with gum arabic to get the grey Brother Matthew insists on. He says the greys of the north are cooler than ours, and he is right, though I do not know how he knows. The lowest row of feathers on the third page wants a second hand to shade it. I tried it with the finest sable, and my hand kept drifting toward the edge of the vellum, as if the feathers were meant to run on past the margin and into the wall.

Last night, the bell for matins had already rung when I finished the medallion. I left one feather unfinished at the outer edge, a single stroke that stops short, the way we were taught to leave a flaw so the work remains human. In the morning the sun came through the cloister and the grey lay on the page like smoke. I could not tell you whether the rosette was looking at me or I at it.

Send word whether the abbot will accept the windows as drawn. I will say a prayer for the carrier, who has been paid in advance and seems very keen to be gone.

Your brother in Christ, Cuthbert