Black and grey dotwork mandala tattoo with dotted chain drops below the breasts on the chest.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Mandala tattoo with dotted chains on the chest

Dotwork · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

A close view of a symmetrical mandala design with a lotus-like centre and pointed outer petals, built from fine dots and stippled shading. A row of dotted chains with small teardrop pendants curves beneath the design. The tattoo sits centrally on the chest and underbust, framed by hands at the sides of the frame.

Dotwork Geometric Chest Mandala Lotus Dotted chain Pendant Petal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lock keeper at Braunston told my father the canal would drown us before the winter was out, and he said it while still holding his lantern up to check our bow. Dad only laughed. That spring he painted the cabin doors himself, a black star at the centre of each panel with its points spreading out like a flower opening under water. Above the tiller he hung the brass lamp from a string of little jet beads, so the light would swing clear of the roof when we went through the locks at night.

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We were four days out of Hillmorton when the wind came round the wrong way and the rain turned sideways. Mum was counting paddles under her breath, and I was on the roof holding the chain steady, when the lamp guttered and went black. I remember the dark closing over the water like a lid. Dad shouted for a match. I went down the steps with my fingers numb and found the box in the cupboard under the bunk, and while I struck the first one I watched the reflection of the lamp on the wet doors, every bead of it broken into a row of tiny lights that slid and gathered as the boat rocked.

We reached Braunston a week late. The lock keeper saw the lamp still burning on the roof and said nothing, only lifted his cap. Years later I took the boat over myself, and when the doors needed painting I did them in the same black ink. I added a seventh point to every star, because my father had never settled on six, and I hung the lamp from the same beads. They were still good. They always swing back into place.