Black and white photo of two people embracing, each with a fine line script word joy tattooed on the forearm.

Matching joy script tattoos on two forearms

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Two people stand close together with their arms crossed, showing matching tattoos of the word joy in a loose, flowing script. The linework is thin and even, with a long swash extending from the letters. The black and white photograph is softly lit, and the framing cuts off both faces so the focus stays on the forearms and the striped and checked sleeves.

Fine line Lettering Forearm Word Script Matching

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 keep at Harrowgate had lost its roof before anyone's grandmother was born, and by the time Hester and Bridie were old enough to climb its stairs, the steps only went up as far as a window with no glass in it. That was where they went when the mill was loud and their father was short with them. They sat on the sill with their feet over nothing and talked about what they would do when they were grown.

Keep reading

One wet spring Bridie said she would go to the coast and cook on a ship, and Hester said she would not, and for a month they did not speak. Hester climbed the stair alone. On the third day she found a stone set loose in the wall, and behind it a flat slate with a word scratched into it, worn nearly smooth. An old woman at the well told her it was the word the castle's last lady had used when she wanted her two sisters back. Joy, she said. Say it and mean it, and it will travel down your arm.

Hester borrowed a nail from the smithy and carried the slate to Bridie's door. They sat on the step and pricked the word into each other's forearms, using soot from the mill chimney mixed with water, until the skin beaded a little and then stopped. Nothing rang and no light came. Bridie said it stung. Hester said that was the joy starting. They climbed to the sill together and watched the valley until the light went.

Bridie did go to the coast in the end, and Hester kept the mill. When either of them folded her arms at a christening or a funeral, the other could see the mark, faint and looping, and knew to put down whatever she was holding. Whenever one of them was low, she would cross her arms, and the other would come up the stair.