Black and grey realism tattoo of a pocket watch with Roman numerals and a rose on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Pocket watch with rose on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A realistic pocket watch with Roman numerals sits at the centre of the design, with a rose and a second watch or clock face partly overlapping it. The shading is soft and smooth, with strong highlights on the metal casing and deep shadows around the edges. The composition wraps diagonally across the forearm, and the image is shot in low light against a dark background.

Realism Forearm Pocket watch Clock Roman numeral Rose

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

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

The 4.12 to Crewe is running eleven minutes late again, and Mr Ashby has stopped blaming the signal box and started blaming the clocks. He came to the ticket hatch this morning waving Father's watch at me, the one you left on the hook by the kettle, and said it had gained four minutes since Tuesday. I told him it had not gained anything. It has simply stopped being wound by anyone who cares about it, which is me now, on Sunday evenings when the platform is empty.

I took it to the back room on Thursday and opened the case with the little knife. Inside, pressed flat against the glass, was the rose from the Whitsun dance, the one Mother dried between two pages of the timetable. Nobody ever told me Father kept it there. Beneath it he had written a time in pencil, 6.40, and nothing else. I have looked at that number every evening since, and I still cannot decide whether it is the time he left or the time he meant to come back.

Here is what I did. I set the watch to the platform clock, which is the only honest clock in Hollins Green, and wound it until the crown went stiff. Then I walked down to the end of the platform where the 6.40 used to stop and held the watch up to the lamp so the rose showed through the glass. The train came in on time for once. Nobody else noticed. I am writing because you should know the watch is going again, and that it is keeping your time now, not his.

Come home at Easter if you can. The rose is still there, though the petals have gone the colour of weak tea. I will leave the kettle on.

Your sister, Ruth