Black ink mandala band tattooed around a wrist, in a geometric style, with a hand and trainers visible against a stone pavement.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Mandala band on a wrist

Geometric · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A wide band of black ornamental mandala sits around the inside of the wrist, with a central half-circle motif, radiating petals and fine dotted detail. The design uses bold solid lines and filled shapes against pale skin, with no colour. The photograph is taken from a low angle, showing the hand, a dark sleeve and grey paving stones.

Geometric Blackwork Forearm Mandala Ornament Petal Wrist band

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The clock over platform four has stopped again, and Mr Akers has sent me up the ladder with a tin of brass polish and a rag that smells of paraffin. I am writing this from the top step, which is the only place in the station where the draught does not come through the ticket hall. You will laugh, but from here I can see the whole dial, and the sunburst round the numerals looks just like the drawing you made me when we were girls, all those points going out from one dot in the middle.

Dust sits in the grooves so thick it has gone grey, and each petal needs its own small rub. I have been at it since the 7.40 went out. Mr Akers says the works are sound and only the hands are sulking. I think he is right, though I did not tell him the minute hand moves most when nobody is watching.

The dot is what I keep coming back to. There is a little brass boss at the centre, and when I touch it my thumb comes away black. Someone pressed a point there with a compass and a steady hand, and every line since has spread out from it. I wonder if that is all any of us do, go out from one small place and keep finding our way back to it.

The last train comes in at nine. If you write, address it to the station and not the house, because Mother reads the post first. Tell me the ship has not made you sick again. I will leave the clock running for you.

Yours, Nell