Two wrists side by side, each with a small dark blue-black compass rose tattoo with a dotwork centre, placed on the inner wrist.

Matching compass tattoos on two wrists

Geometric · Other · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows two inner wrists, each with a compass rose tattoo of similar size and design. The compass has a ringed outer edge, bold radiating points and a dotted centre, drawn in dark ink. The ink appears black or deep navy against pale skin, set on a soft, light background.

Find an artist for this

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

Sit yourself down by the range, because this is a long one and my knees won't stand for telling it twice. There were two Pringle girls at the top of Hollin Row, Nell and Agnes, and their father was a deputy down Ashgill Pit, a man who could find his way through black roads with a candle and a bit of chalk. He was the one who drew the roses on their wrists. Didn't have a proper needle, mind. He used a sail-maker's pin and blue ink from the chemist's, the night before Nell went into service in Whitby, so she'd have something to steer her north by.

Keep reading

Nell went over the moors in a carrier's cart with a tin trunk and a paper bag of boiled sweets, and Agnes stood at the gate until the cart lamp was just a spark. For a year the letters came from a harbour town full of gulls and fish smoke, and every one of them said the same thing: the wind's from the wrong side here, Ag, and I keep turning round. Agnes wrote back that another two men had been taken at the pit, that the seam ran north under the chapel, and that she put her hand over her wrist when she was frightened, the way their father taught them underground.

Then the letters stopped. Agnes walked the Whitby road every Sunday for a month, straight-backed, her wrist turned up to the sky. In the third week a fisherman's boy brought a parcel with no note, only a pocket compass with a cracked glass and a rose scratched on its lid, and when she held it flat the needle swung round to the chapel tower, not to any north at all.

That's the bit I never could explain to the vicar. Some things point to wherever you carry them.

More like this

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
Two matching black compass rose tattoos in fine line style sit on the inner wrists of two people, one on the left forearm and one on the right.
Matching compass tattoos on two wrists
Two small black mandala flower tattoos in a fine line style, one on each inner wrist of two people with their arms placed together.
Matching mandala tattoos on two wrists
Fine line black tattoo of a sun and crescent moon with dangling dotted lines and stars on the inner forearm near the wrist, with the word Psalms and the reference 148:3.
Sun and crescent moon on a forearm
Black and white photo of two geometric mandala tattoos, one on each forearm, with fine linework on the left and dense dotwork shading on the right.
Matching mandala tattoos on two forearms
Two dark mandala-style designs in black ink sit on the ankles of a pair of crossed feet, one with a sunburst pattern and one with a flower pattern.
Mandala designs on two ankles
Two matching forearm tattoos of crescent halves filled with mandala patterns, one in black linework and one with green shading, shown side by side on two arms.
Matching mandala crescent forearm tattoos
Small black and grey tattoos of a starburst sun with a face and a crescent moon with a star, placed on two fingers of a hand.
Sun and crescent moon on fingers
Close photograph of a blue botanical tattoo in a circular folk-style floral design on the upper arm of a woman wearing a white vest top.
Blue folk floral circle on upper arm
Black cherry blossom tattoo with a curling stem and a small character beneath it, sitting on the inner wrist and forearm.
Cherry blossom and swirl on a wrist
Three black ink mandala-style tattoos on the inner forearms and wrists of arms held together, with a flower, a sun and a star-like design.
Three mandala-style tattoos on wrists and forearms
Three small black fine line eye tattoos, one on a finger, one on the back of the hand and one on the inner wrist.
Three small eye tattoos on hands and wrist

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.