Black and grey traditional tattoo of a pocket watch with gears and a banner reading Everything is borrowed, on the forearm.

Pocket watch and banner on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows an open pocket watch with a ring at the top, Roman numerals and gear wheels visible through the face, wrapped by a ribbon banner that reads EVERYTHING IS BORROWED. The linework is bold and clean, with shading in the banner folds and watch case. The collage shows three views of the same piece, all in black and grey ink.

Traditional Forearm Pocket watch Banner Lettering Gear Roman numeral Clock

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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

Dear Tom, Mr Oduya has finally got your grandad's pocket watch running true again. He opened the case on Tuesday, cleaned the little gear wheels one by one and set the hands back against the Roman numerals, though he swore the glass was cracked before it ever reached his bench. I held it under the awning at Shipley Street market this morning, rain running off the canvas onto my wrists, and read the time through the lens like a schoolgirl.

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You'll say the stall belongs to the council and everything we sell is only passing through. You were right, love, and I wanted to hit you for saying it at the funeral. Every ring on the velvet tray came out of somebody's kitchen drawer and will go back into one eventually.

Last Thursday a lad of nineteen came to the stall with a carrier bag of old watches to pay his rent. Tucked inside his coat was a card his gran had written, with the words Everything is borrowed inked in a ribbon across the top. When he read it out I laughed so hard the rain got in my mouth, and I gave him forty pounds for the lot.

I've kept your grandad's watch back. It's ticking on the windowsill beside the kettle now. When the rain stops I'll walk it down to the canal and wind it one last time before I hand it on, so come home at Easter and we'll do it together. Love, Mum.