Black and grey blackwork tattoo of pine tree silhouettes above a compass rose with N, E, S and W points, on the inner forearm near the wrist.

Pine forest and compass on a forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Solid black pine tree silhouettes rise from the upper part of the forearm and fade into soft stippled grey shading. Below them, a detailed compass rose with a star of points and N, E, S and W labels sits near the wrist, with the same fading shading behind it. The image is a close, straight-on view with a plain light background, and the tattoo fills most of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Brother Tobias,

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The pines have come down the north slope again since you left. Brother Wulf counted forty paces in a week, and the old boundary stone by the spring now stands in the middle of the trees, with lichen on its far side where the sun never reaches. I have not told the abbot yet. He is still sulking about the bell rope.

The compass you took down the valley was the brass one with the cracked glass, the one your mother gave the house. I found the spare in the scriptorium drawer, the one with the rose painted on its lid, and set it on the sill this morning to see where the sun would fall. The needle would not settle. It swung north, then east, then sat trembling toward the stand of firs beyond the wall, as if the forest were a lodestone and we were the iron.

Do not come back up before the thaw. Bring the surveyor's chain if the bursar will release it, and bring salt. Brother Wulf says the deer have started following the bell at vespers, which I have never seen them do in twenty years of keeping this house.

Last night I walked to the boundary stone with a lantern. The trees stood close enough to touch, and the needle pointed straight through them, south, toward the abbey gate we have not used in nine years. I stood there until the oil ran low. When I turned round, the path I had cut was already grown over with saplings no higher than my knee.

Your brother in Christ, Anselm

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