Black linework mandala and paisley tattoo with ornate scrolls and leaf motifs covering the inner forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Mandala and paisley forearm tattoo

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A dense mandala and paisley design in black ink covers the forearm, with a large flower-like motif at the top that continues down the arm. The linework is fine and even, using stippled fill, scrolls and repeated leaf and teardrop shapes. The image is shown in black ink on skin against a plain pale background, with the arm filling most of the frame.

Fine line Geometric Forearm Mandala Paisley Flower Scroll Leaf Teardrop

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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

Dear Win, you will laugh at me, but I have finally done it. Mr Ashdown let me take the paisley shawl home overnight, the one he won off a sailor in Bombay, and I sat up until two with a lamp and a sheet of tracing paper copying every scroll by hand. Forty-one teardrops in the first ring alone. I counted them twice so you would not have to.

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The shawl is for the Palais on Saturday, where Mrs Carrow means to wear it over her green crepe when she dances with the Canadian. She says nobody in Hull will know the difference. I told her the leaves on the outer ring are a different leaf entirely, sharper at the tip, and she said then they will look like the real thing from the balcony, and that is all a dance hall needs.

I did not tell her that the star at the centre is meant to be read from the middle outwards, the way Mr Ashdown taught us, so the eye never quite reaches the edge. I have pinned my copy above the sewing table. Every time the needle slips I find the thread has crept back to the place it started.

Come on Saturday and tell me I have made a fool of myself. Bring the good scissors. Your loving sister, Ada.