Fine line geometric tattoo of overlapping circles, arcs and dotted lines in black ink on the inner forearm.

Overlapping circles on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A forearm carries a cluster of overlapping thin circles and arcs, with several dotted lines and small arrowheads tracing curved paths across the design. The linework is fine and precise, with varied line weights that give depth where the arcs cross. The tattoo is entirely black ink on pale skin, and the blurred background and dark clothing keep the focus on the design.

Fine line Geometric Forearm Circle Arc Dotted line Arrow

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The snow had shut the Coldharbour road for three days when the stranger finished his drawing on our taproom table. He had borrowed my father's compass and a stub of carpenter's pencil, and he worked with his sleeve pushed up, the way men do when they expect to be paid by the hour. Circle after circle, each laid over the last, until the oak looked like a pond after a handful of stones had been dropped into it.

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I asked him what it was meant to be. He tapped a dotted curve with the pencil end. 'Paths,' he said. 'Every one a moon going round its father, and every one knows where it will be on a day nobody has been born yet to see.' He drew a small arrowhead on one line, then another where two arcs met. 'These have already passed through. These are still to come.' My father called it nonsense and charged him for the ale anyway.

Morning came with the thaw. The stranger was gone, his boots left by the hearth as if he meant to come back for them, and the lane beyond the gate was a white sheet with one set of tracks crossing it, then doubling back in a loop, then crossing again.

I scrubbed the table with sand and vinegar until my knuckles bled, but the lines would not lift. Under the lamp they still show, faint and grey, and every winter I trace them with my finger and count the arrows, looking for the one that points back to the door.