Black and grey realism tattoo of a pocket watch with Roman numerals, two roses and leaves on a forearm.

Pocket watch and roses on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A pocket watch with Roman numerals and a script word on its face sits at the centre of the forearm, flanked by two shaded roses with leaves. Smooth shading and fine detail give the watch case, hands and petals a realistic, three-dimensional look. The design is rendered in black and grey ink, with a Roman numeral date lettered along the lower edge of the arm.

Realism Forearm Pocket watch Clock Rose Leaves Roman numeral Script Date

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Come closer, the lot of you, and mind the guy ropes. You want the story of the watch, and I'll tell it once, so pay attention. The summer they raised the big wheel on Carrow Green, a man called Abel Quint came through the gate with a pocket watch in his waistcoat and no money in his pocket. The watch had stopped at a quarter past nine. He would not say why, and nobody asked twice, because Quint had hands like a cabinet-maker and a stare that made the lads step aside.

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He took work on the dodgems. Every evening at nine he stood by the generator with the watch open in his palm, waiting for the hands to agree with the sky. Mrs Pell, who sold teas from a caravan painted with roses, asked him what he was waiting for. He said he was waiting for the minute to come round again.

On the last night the wheel stopped with a girl of about ten at the very top, and the power went out with a groan like a cow in a ditch. In the dark Quint climbed the frame with the watch between his teeth. He wound the gears by hand, counting aloud the way his father had taught him, one numeral for every turn, until the lamps came back and the girl was laughing and the watch was ticking in his fist.

Mrs Pell found him at dawn on her caravan steps. He held the watch out to her. The face said Since, in curling letters, and nothing else. "Since when?" she asked. He looked at the sleeping fairground, the rain on the wheel, the girl's mother running across the grass. "Since the wheel turned," he said. She closed his fingers over the watch and went to put the kettle on.