Black and grey fine line and dotwork tattoo of overlapping circles, a dotted axis line and shaded moon phases on the inner forearm, with a small script word at the edge.

Overlapping circles and moon on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows overlapping thin circles crossed by a dotted diagonal line, with two shaded spheres, one a crescent moon, placed at the edges of the design. The linework is fine and precise, and the shading is built from stippled dots that give the spheres soft tone. The design is in black ink only and sits centred on the inner arm against a light skin tone and a dark, cluttered background.

Fine line Dotwork Geometric Forearm Circle Moon Sphere Orbit Dotted line Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The band has slowed the foxtrot to a crawl by the time you find the chalk line on the floor, the dotted one the caretaker laid down years ago and nobody has bothered to scrub. Teodor is already steering you along it, his palm flat between your shoulder blades the way he always holds you, as if you might drift off if he lets go. Round the edge the older couples keep their tight turns near the stage, and out here on the outer ring the dancers move in wider loops, each pair pulled round a centre they can't quite see.

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He tells you the hall runs on two centres, the mirror ball above the stage and the dim bulb over the fire door, and that every couple is really just a pair of bodies trying not to collide while they go round the same thing. You laugh and miss a step. He catches you without looking down, the way he catches everything. Where the two lanes cross in the middle of the floor, he stops you for one bar of music, very still, and says he has a train to Glasgow on Thursday, his sister's new flat, a job lined up at the observatory there. Same time next week, he says, and you nod, because you have never once known how to say no to him.

When the last waltz ends you stay on the floor after the lights come up. The caretaker is sweeping chalk dust into a heap near the door. A pale crescent of light from the open fire exit slides across the boards and rests on the dotted line, and you step onto it and follow it round, counting the dots under your shoes until the broom reaches you and you have to move on.