Fine line geometric tattoo of three overlapping circles crossed by a vertical and horizontal line with small arrowheads, in black ink on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Overlapping circles and crosshair on forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows three overlapping circles of different sizes, crossed by a vertical and horizontal axis with arrowheads at the ends and small tick marks along the lines, resembling a construction diagram. The linework is thin and even, with single-needle strokes and small dots at the intersections. The design is in black ink on pale skin, set against a dark background, and is centred on the limb.

Fine line Geometric Forearm Circle Arrow Dot

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mr Pallister gave me the compass on my second Tuesday at the drawing office, and the first thing he said was that a circle is only a promise a man makes with a pin. I had drawn nothing but tide tables until then. He wanted three circles on a sheet of Whatman paper, one for the lamp, one for the brass housing and one for the swing of the sea, and every one had to cross the other two at exactly the point where the axis cut them.

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I worked until the gas was low. The ink was thin and the nib kept catching on the grain, so I learned to lift the pen and set each dot with the tip of a knife. Pallister came back at nine with his coat still on, held the sheet up to the window, and said nothing for so long that I thought I had ruined it. Then he put a fingertip on the smallest circle, the one I had nearly left out, and said that was where the boat would turn if it ever did.

The arrows were his idea. He drew them himself, one at each end of the horizontal, and the ticks along the vertical were for the hours we would never log. He told me a navigator who trusts a line will find his way home, and a navigator who trusts a dot will drown in a neat little harbour. I did not understand him until the March gale took the Marian Ellis off the Spurn with her cargo still lashed.

Pallister's drawing hung on the office wall for years after. Each morning I passed it on the way to my desk and checked the crossing point with my thumb, the way he taught me. I still find the pin-hole where the centre sat, and I set my thumb there before I trust anything else.