Black ink ornamental mandala and scrollwork tattoo on an upper arm, shown in a casual indoor photo.

Ornamental mandala tattoo on upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black ink tattoo of a lotus-like mandala with fine scrollwork curling up beside it and a dotted chain with hanging drops below. The linework is fine and detailed, with stippled and solid areas of shading. The design sits on the upper arm, and the photo is taken indoors with long wavy hair and a leather sofa in the background.

Upper arm Mandala Lotus Scrollwork Paisley Dot Chain Floral ornament

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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 Nell, the ship has been rolling for nine days now and the tea caddy has taken to sliding off the galley shelf every time we hit the swell off the Cape. Cook says it is the same every voyage and I should stop writing it down, but you always liked the small weather of things, so here it is. Yesterday the purser's boy came down to the engine room with a cracked brass compass glass and asked if I could mend it. I told him a glass is a glass, and it went back up to the chart room with a new pane and a tin of Bristol polish stuck to it.

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The other thing I wanted to tell you is about the drawing in Mr Okafor's notebook. He is the second mate and he keeps a sketchbook of patterns he saw in Bombay, lotus shapes, curled leaves, little chains of drops like rain hanging off an eave. He showed me one page and asked if I thought a man could carry a pattern on his skin that long without it wearing thin. I said that is what skin is for, it wears thin and then grows back a bit darker. He laughed and said I was no help at all.

We make Fremantle in three weeks. I have written to Mother that I will be home by the spring, but you know how she counts the days. Tell her I have bought the pale blue cloth she likes, and that I have not lost a single bolt of it overboard. The sea has been kind, though it is rough enough to keep a man honest. Write back to the Lady Harriet's post office in Fremantle, and do not let Mother read the part about the tea caddy.

Your brother, Tom