Black linework drawing of nested circular arcs inside a large circle, on a plain white background, shown as a tattoo design sheet.

Nested arcs inside a circle

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A black line drawing on white paper shows a large circle containing a set of nested circular arcs that meet at the circle's edge on the left and right. The arcs are thin, even and unshaded, with no fill or texture. The composition is centred and symmetrical, with plenty of empty paper around the circle.

Fine line Geometric Circle Arc Geometric pattern Line drawing

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit down, the pair of you, and keep your fingers off that cord. Old Tobias Wren laid out the lawn at Hollin House with nothing but a length of hemp, two iron pegs and a stubborn streak, and he would not allow a single rose to go in until every ring of it was true.

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The pegs were the rule. One went in at the west edge of the grass, the other at the east, and every circle he drew had to pass through both of them, no matter how big or small it came out. He'd walk the cord out from the west peg, swing it round, scratch the line into the turf with his heel, then go back and start another that kissed the first at the same two points. The gardeners laughed at him for a fool who wasted a whole summer on curves that folded into each other like sleeves. His daughter Nell didn't laugh. She held the other end of the cord and counted.

By the back end of August there were seven rings, each one sitting inside the one before, the biggest near the hedge and the smallest so tight to the east peg that a wren could hardly have turned round in it. Tobias died in September, in the potting shed, with his boots still on. Nell went out to the lawn the morning after and found the turf had already started to take the lines, a pale green thread under every arc, as if the grass had been waiting for permission.

She planted the roses in the wide bands and left the smallest ring bare. It's still bare. Go and look at it when we've finished, and mind the pegs, they're older than the house.