Black linework flash design of overlapping concentric circles and small rings in a horizontal band, with no body placement shown.

Overlapping circles line design

Geometric · Black and grey · Flash

The image is a black line drawing on a white background, showing many overlapping circles of varying sizes arranged in a horizontal band. Each circle contains concentric rings, short arcs and small dots, with some thick and some thin strokes. The design is monochrome and evenly spaced across the frame, with no shading or grey tones.

Geometric Circle Concentric circle Ring Linework Abstract Dot

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Oswin, the rings you sent came by the Thursday carrier, rolled in oilcloth so the ink would not smudge. I have laid them out on the long table under the north window, where the light holds steady until noon. Each circle is a word, and the small dots sit where the vowels should fall, which you would know if you had not spent the winter arguing with the abbot about the proper distance between them.

Keep reading

The trouble is the largest ring, the one with the broken arc at its eastern edge. I have read it four ways. Read clockwise, it says the water is rising under the mill. Read anticlockwise, it says the mill is rising from the water, which would be a miracle and therefore unlikely to appear in a surveyor's accounts. I walked down to the weir yesterday with the sheet folded in my sleeve, and the reeds were already standing a hand higher than last month.

Here is what I think. The dots are not vowels at all but the places where the men stood when they measured. Three dots inside the middle ring, one on the crossing line, one tucked against the rim like a thumbprint. If we take the rings as the lock gates and the dots as the sluice marks, the whole band of circles becomes a plan of the valley, overlapping just as the ponds do after rain.

Bring your compass when you come, and the brass square with the cracked handle. Do not bring the abbot. I have left the largest circle uninked so you can add what the water decides. Your friend, Aud.