Close-up of a dark ornamental swirl and dot design running from the fingers across the back of a hand to the wrist, in a black_and_grey finish.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornamental swirl design across the back of a hand

Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A dark ornamental design of scrolls, swirls, dots and small star shapes runs from the middle finger across the back of the hand and down towards the wrist. The lines are solid and even, with the scrolls filled in densely in places and open in others, and the ink is a uniform dark tone. The hand rests against bare skin in soft focus, with lavender nail polish and a plain background that keeps attention on the design.

Hand Swirl Scroll Dot Star Ornament Flourish

Find an artist for this

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

The tin of ink had gone solid in the cold, so Ruth warmed it against the stove before she would touch the brush. Outside, the Pennant light swept its white arm across the water every eleven seconds, and she counted each sweep while she worked, because counting kept her hand steady.

Keep reading

Her sister had posted the pattern from Penzance, a scrap of lace cut from an old christening gown, scrolls curling back on themselves like bracken fiddleheads, with small stars scattered in the gaps. Ruth had never cared for lace. But Tomas, the relief keeper, had spent three weeks on the rock that winter staring at grey water, and he asked her to draw something he could look at besides the sea. She began at the knuckle of his middle finger and let the lines run down the back of his hand, dotting them as she went, until the thickest scrolls gathered near the wrist like a wave turning over.

He held still for an hour without complaint. When she finished, he turned his hand under the lamp-room window and laughed at how the dots threw small shadows on the sill. He said the stars would outlast the scrolls, because stars always did, and she told him ink lasted only as long as a hand bothered to keep it.

The relief boat came on the Thursday. Ruth stood at the landing and watched Tomas climb down the ladder with his bag, and when the light swung round again she saw the pattern catch it, every dot and scroll lit for a moment before the dark closed back over the rock.