Fine line black palm tree tattoo on the inner forearm of a person raising their arm against a white cloth and pale wall.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Palm tree on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A small palm tree sits on the forearm, drawn in fine grey-black linework with a shaded crown, and a single thin stem runs up towards the wrist. Several tiny faint marks are visible near the elbow and wrist but are too small to read. The arm is raised against a white cloth and a pale pink wall, with a black swimsuit at the left edge of the frame.

Fine line Botanical Forearm Palm tree Palm Stem Line

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You pull the palm from the sack at the top of the pass, where the wind comes off the snow in long flat sheets. Its fronds have gone the colour of wet paper. Your father said a palm would never survive two thousand metres, and the mule, who has opinions of her own, went lame on the last switchback and left you holding the rope.

Keep reading

The seedling came from Tomás's yard in the harbour town, where the palms grew along the sea wall and dropped their dates on the cart road. He pressed the pot into your hands with a hard look and told you to keep it from every frost. For three days you have carried it inside your coat, and the stem, one pale green line, has leaned towards you the whole way, as if it knew which direction the sea was in.

Beyond the saddle the valley falls away in terraces, and at the very bottom you can just make out a grey glint that might be the water. There is no soil up here worth the name, only grit and lichen packed into the cracks. You kneel on the cold rock, scrape a hollow into a sheltered ledge with the heel of your hand, and set the pot down with its crown turned against the wind.

When you stand, your knees ache and the wind tugs at your collar. Then the sun breaks through and the frond trembles and holds itself upright. Tomás will say a palm needs sand, not stone. You will tell him it found its own shade, and that the mule can carry the rest of the news down the mountain.