Black and grey realism tattoo of an open pocket watch with faded handwritten script behind it, on the inner forearm.

Pocket watch and handwriting on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A photograph of a realistic pocket watch tattooed on a forearm, shown with its chain-style bow, open case and two dials with Roman numerals. The watch is shaded in soft greys with bright highlights on the metal, and handwritten cursive script fills the background across the skin. The image is framed tightly on the arm against a plain backdrop.

Realism Forearm Pocket watch Clock Roman numeral Handwriting Script

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

Sit down, you'll want the rest before the lamp goes out. My grandfather worked the frontier crossing at Vahlen, where the road bends through the pines and two countries keep different hours on the same clock tower. Every morning he wound a silver pocket watch and set its hour by the railway telegraph, then set the second dial by the customs office across the river, because the two never agreed, and a man could be late for his own life that way.

Keep reading

One February a woman came over the bridge with a single suitcase and a stack of letters tied in string. She wanted to know if the watch was right. He told her it was right for both of them, which was the only honest answer he had. She said her husband had written to her every week for eleven years from the far side, and the letters had always arrived on time, but she had never once managed to be there when he finished one.

Grandfather opened the case and showed her the Roman numerals, worn soft by thumbs. Then he read the first line of the oldest letter aloud, in the voice of a man who had never met the writer, and she laughed so hard the guard came out to see what the noise was. Time, he said, is only a matter of which side of the bridge you are standing on when you finally decide to stop waiting.

She crossed that afternoon. The watch stopped at four, and he never wound it again.