Two matching black compass rose tattoos on the inner wrists, one on each arm, drawn in fine line detail.

Matching compass roses on two wrists

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Two near-identical compass rose tattoos sit on the inner wrists of two arms, with the larger one on the left and a smaller one on the right. The linework is fine and detailed, with bold dark points, a ringed dial and small lettering around the outer edge, and the ink is shown in black. The soft, warm lighting and the plain light fabric behind the arms keep the focus on the designs.

Fine line Geometric Forearm Compass Compass rose Matching Nautical

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the ewes are lambing early this year and Dad has been sleeping in the barn with a flask and the paraffin lamp. I found your old tin under the stairs yesterday, the one with the two brass compasses we bought from the chandler's in Whitby the summer before you went. Mine still points true to the back door. Yours is somewhere off Iceland, I suppose, doing what it was made for.

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Frost has got into the top field and the gate by the pump has frozen shut twice this week. I broke the ice with the spade and thought of you hauling nets in the dark, which you always said was warmer than this. I never believed you.

I took my compass to Mr Haskell in Kendal, the jeweller who keeps the church clocks going, and asked him to look at the needle. He held it to the window for a long time, turning it so the light ran around the ring of letters, and then said the needle was fine and the trouble was not in the brass. I didn't ask him what he meant. He wouldn't take a penny, which I think was his way of being kind.

The tin is on the windowsill now with the lid propped open. When the thaw comes I'll walk the boundary the way we used to, north past the beeches and down to the beck, and if the needle still swings back to the house I'll know which way to write next. Post this with a sprig of holly pressed inside, and come home when the wind goes round to the west. Your loving sister, Ruth.