Black blackwork tattoo of a crescent moon, stars and stylised waves inside a circle, placed on the upper back near the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Moon and waves in a circle on the upper back

Blackwork · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A circular tattoo shows a crescent moon and small stars in a dark night sky above rows of fine, wavy sea lines. A stylised fin or tail shape sits among the waves at the lower left. The design is done in black ink only, with the solid night sky contrasting against the thin, repeated linework of the water and centred on the upper back.

Blackwork Fine line Back Moon Star Wave Sea Circle Fin Night sky

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The sea came up through the adit at Wheal Morwen on the third night of the spring tides, and by the time the bell rang the men were already counting heads on the cliff. Dilys Penhallow counted hers twice and came up one short. Tomas had gone down on the late shift to mend a pump, and the water had closed behind him like a lid.

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She walked to the engine house with her shawl pulled tight. The sky had cleared, and a thin moon hung over the stacks like a hook someone had forgotten to hang a coat on. Morwenna from the cottages met her at the gate and said the sea took what it was owed and the mine always asked for one. Dilys told her to hush. Below the cliff, in the black cove where the waves came in in rows, something turned over, a pale fin cutting the swell and sinking again.

Tomas used to tell their girl that the moon was a lamp the sea kept lit for men who had lost their way underground. Dilys took the lamp from its nail by the winding gear and went down the ladder to the lowest level, where the water stood still and flat as slate. She called his name until her voice gave out. Then the surface broke, a long grey back rising and sliding under again, and she heard a sound like a man humming a hymn he had only half learnt.

At first light the pumps began to knock and the water drew back down the adit. Tomas came up the ladder dry at the cuffs, his cap full of sea-salt and silence. When the men asked where he had been, he only said the moon had kept him company, and that he had left his lamp below for the sea to mind.