Black and grey dotwork tattoo on the inside of a forearm showing a row of moon phases around a central full moon, framed by fine geometric lines.

Moon phases and geometric lines on a forearm

Dotwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a central full moon shaded with stippled dots, surrounded by smaller crescent and gibbous moon phases running diagonally down the forearm. Fine single-line shapes form a circle and overlapping diamond and square frames behind the moons, with small dots scattered along the lines. The work is in black ink and grey tones on a light skin tone, photographed from a slight angle against a grey shirt and a wooden floor.

Dotwork Fine line Geometric Forearm Moon Moon phase Crescent moon Full moon Circle Square Diamond Line Dot

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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

Dear Tom, the last stake went into the sand at dusk, so Father says we can begin the night sightings tomorrow. He lays the theodolite on the tailgate and I write the numbers down, though my hand shakes from the cold that comes up off the road once the sun has gone.

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Every evening the moon is a different shape, and he makes me draw it. First the thin crescent low over the ridge, then the lopsided gibbous, then nothing at all for two nights, which he says is the moon hiding behind its own shadow. I have drawn it all in pencil on the back of the survey sheets, with small dots for the stakes and a square for the camp, joined by lines that never seem to close the way they should. Father says the road is only ever a diamond on paper and the desert is never square.

Last night the full moon came up round and grey, pitted like the far side of a coin, and it sat exactly inside the circle I had scratched around the fire. Father looked at it for a long time and said nothing, then told me to write the bearing down anyway. I did. Do you remember how you used to say the moon kept an eye on us? I think it is keeping an eye on the chart now, and on the date you promised to be home.

The chart goes to the company on Friday. I have left one line unfinished, running off the edge of the paper towards Calder, where I think you will come back along the road. Come home by the full moon, or at least write me the phase so I can mark it.