Black and grey realism tattoo of an open pocket watch showing its gears and Roman numerals on the upper arm, with a faded rose behind it.

Open pocket watch on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A detailed pocket watch with its cover open, revealing the movement and gears, sits on the upper arm. The Roman numerals, bezel and metal case are rendered with fine shading and strong highlights. A faded floral tattoo, possibly a rose, sits behind the watch on the left.

Realism Upper arm Pocket watch Clock Gear Roman numeral Rose Flower

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You are fourteen when Brother Anselm hands you the dead man's watch and tells you the abbey clock will not strike again until you understand what is inside the case. The brass is cold from the vestry drawer. Someone has scratched the Roman numerals with a pin, one hand is bent back against the glass like a bird against a window, and tucked behind the cracked crystal is a pressed rose petal gone the colour of weak tea.

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For a month you sit in the cold workshop under the bell tower with a loupe screwed into one eye. You lift the balance wheel with tweezers, count the teeth on the great wheel, and learn that every gear turns only because the one beside it is forced to yield. Anselm watches from his stool and says nothing, which is his way of teaching. Rain drums the leads overhead, and when the vespers bell comes up through the floorboards you feel it in your teeth.

On the thirty-first day the cover springs open in your palm and you see the movement ticking on, indifferent to the hand that holds it. You carry it up the tower steps, past the stopped clock face with its black iron numerals, and set the watch against the bell rope. The minute hand jerks, catches, and moves on.

Anselm is waiting at the top with a rag over his shoulder. "Now," he says, "wind the tower." You take the key from his hand, and the abbey begins, one slow stroke at a time, to keep the hour.