Black ornamental hamsa hand tattoo with an eye motif on the outer thigh of a seated woman in a red skirt, in Blackwork style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornate hamsa hand on a thigh

Blackwork · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A black ink hamsa hand sits on the outer thigh of a seated person in a red skirt and olive jacket. The design is filled with dense ornamental linework, scrollwork and a central eye, with solid black areas framing the pattern. The image is in black ink only, with the tattoo centred in the lower half of the frame against a muted background.

Blackwork Thigh Hamsa Hand Eye Ornament Filigree

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The eye in the palm was the last thing Idris cut, and he cut it twice. The first iris came out lopsided, like a lamp guttering in a draught, so he melted it back into the crucible while the tide turned under the workshop floor. Ruth had brought him a sack of dead watches and one odd request: could a hand keep watch? He laughed, then went quiet and sketched it on the back of a bill of lading, scrolls curling from the fingers like smoke off a snuffed wick, a ring of dots at the wrist that he said were for counting.

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The harbour wardens had a rule that nothing hung above a galley fire went unnamed, so Idris stamped the back with the initials of Ruth's brother, Tomas, who had shipped out on the Cormorant the week before and had not yet written. The filigree hid the letters from anyone who only looked at the front, which was, Idris said, the whole point of good work.

On the third night of the gale, Halvard, the Cormorant's cook, found the hand wedged behind the spice tins. It was still faintly warm, though no one had been near the stove. He hung it on a nail above the bread oven, and since nobody on board had a better plan, he kept his eyes on the black sea through its lacework until the morning came grey and the coast showed up like a rumour.

Ruth had the letter six weeks later. It said only: the eye is still open, the bread is terrible, and your brother owes me a tin of coffee.