Three matching black ink tattoos of the ILY sign language hand shape combined with a heart, placed on the wrists of three people holding hands.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Matching ILY hand sign and heart wrist tattoos

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Three people hold hands, with a small black ink tattoo on each wrist. Each tattoo shows the sign language gesture for I love you, with the thumb, index and little finger extended and the outline forming a heart shape. The linework is solid and uniform, with no shading, and the plain black ink stands out against the skin in a close, centred composition.

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

The winch on the fish quay has been grinding since six, and Marnie still hasn't looked up from her net. So you lift your hand above the gulls and make the shape: thumb, first finger and little finger out, the other two folded down. She sees it, of course she does, and her mouth goes crooked the way it always does when she is trying not to laugh at you.

Keep reading

You got the matching marks in July, in the back room of the chandlery on Scarr Lane, Ruth's machine buzzing while the three of you argued about whether the heart belonged inside the sign or just beneath it. Dess won. The curl of the folded fingers became an outline, solid and black, and Ruth wiped each wrist with a paper towel and said it would look like nothing at all in ten years. You did not care. Nothing about that summer was meant to last.

Dess is on the afternoon boat to Ardmore. Her bag sits on the slipway like a patient dog, and the ferry's horn sounds twice, so deep the planks hum under your boots. You try to say the words and they vanish into the diesel and the slap of the hull. So you do the only thing left. You take her hand, turn her wrist so the ink faces up, and sign it slowly, once, then again, while the gangway lifts.

By the time the ferry clears the harbour wall, Marnie has stopped mending and is standing beside you with her own hand raised, thumb and little finger steady against the glare. Dess is a small figure at the rail, then only a shape, and then you are both holding up your wrists, two black hearts pressed flat against the sky, for a boat that can no longer see them.

More like this

Two hands clasped together, each showing a pair of tiny black fine line bird silhouettes tattooed on the back of the hand.
Two small birds on clasped hands
Close photograph of a small black fine line arrow tattoo on the side of a finger, held between two hands.
Small arrow tattoo on a finger
Two small black fine line heart-shaped key tattoos on the inner wrists of two people holding hands, in a black and white photo.
Matching heart key tattoos on wrists
Two matching black Celtic knot tattoos in bold linework on the wrists of two hands clasped together.
Matching Celtic knot wrist tattoos
Two matching black fine line scroll tattoos on the wrists of two people holding hands in a car, one on each wrist.
Matching scroll tattoos on two wrists
Two pairs of tiny black bird tattoos sit on the backs of two hands held together, in a minimal fine line style.
Two small birds on linked hands
Two matching fine line black and grey key tattoos on the inner wrists of two people, one with a hand raised and one with a fist clenched.
Matching key tattoos on wrists
Two small black fine line birds in flight, one pair on a forearm and one pair near the hand, with the arms clasped together.
Pair of small birds on clasped forearms
Three small fine line tattoos of a sun, a star and a crescent moon on three wrists held together, placed on the forearm near the wrist.
Sun, star and crescent moon wrist tattoos
Four wrists pressed together, each with a fine line infinity and heart tattoo on the inner forearm in red, blue or black ink.
Matching infinity and heart wrist tattoos
Close-up of a small black fine line tattoo of an anchor with a heart on the side of a finger, held up between another hand.
Anchor and heart on a finger
Two pairs of small black fine line bird tattoos on the backs of two clasped hands, one with red nail polish.
Two small birds on clasped hands

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