Four matching black arrow tattoos with Roman numerals, two small ones on the wrists and two larger ones on the inner forearms.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Matching arrow tattoos with Roman numerals

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Four arms are shown close together, each with an arrow tattoo and Roman numerals in black ink. The two smaller arrows sit on the wrists, while the two larger arrows with feathered fletching run down the inner forearms. The linework is solid and the shading is in soft grey, with a warm, low-light background.

Forearm Arrow Roman numeral Feather Matching

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The clock at Saint Brannoc's had stopped twice that winter, and both times the fault was mine for oiling the wrong pin. So when Prior Oswin sent me up the bell stair with a lamp and a sour face, I went without argument. Brother Tobias was already at the top, swearing softly at the escapement, his sleeves pushed back.

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By the lamp I could see the arrow he had inked the spring before, its feathers fanned out like a dove coming down to land, with the numerals IV set beside it. He had done it with a sewing needle and a pot of lamp black, the way the novices did anything they had been told not to. He said the four of us who kept the clock should wear matching marks, so that whoever stood at the wheel would know the others were in the tower. I told him it was a poor reason to bleed. He only grinned and held the light steady.

Between us we coaxed the great wheel round with a crowbar and a prayer. The numerals on the tower face counted down the hours like a litany, and the arrows on the hands pointed where the work had to go. Tobias pinned the last tooth back into place with a splinter of oak, and the pendulum took up its slow swing again, tick and then tock, steady through the floorboards.

When the bell finally struck six, the whole house woke and grumbled. Oswin climbed the stair to scold us and stayed to listen instead. Tobias tugged his sleeve down over the feathers and winked at me. I still think of that wink every time I wind a clock.