White dotwork drawing of a ram skull with curled horns, two crescent moons and a starry triangle inside a circle, on a black background.

Ram skull with crescent moons in a triangle

Dotwork · Black and grey · Flash

A ram skull with curled horns sits at the centre of a circle and an upward-pointing triangle, with a second triangle crossing it. Two crescent moons flank the skull, and the background is dotted with small stars. The design is built from fine stippled dots and short strokes in white on black, with the shading concentrated on the horns and skull.

Dotwork Geometric Horn Skull Crescent moon Moon Triangle Circle Star

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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Mam says you've taken a room above the chandler's in Leeds and I'm to stop writing about the weather, so I'll write about the ram instead. He came down off Hob Scar the night the moon went to a paring, walking slow along the wall with his horns held up like he was carrying two lanterns. Nobody had seen him since Michaelmas. Dad said he'd gone off to die in the bracken the way old tups do, but there he was at the top gate at three in the morning, bleating at nothing.

I went out with the lamp. Under the wall the pale of his skull was so bright it looked painted onto the dark, and the stars were out thick, the kind you only get when the wind has been scrubbing the sky for a week. I counted them the way you taught me, in tens, and lost my place at forty because the ram put his head down and began scraping at the frozen ground by the gatepost, one hoof then the other, like a clock with a fault in it.

I didn't understand until I looked up. Both moons were out, one either side of the valley, curled like brackets, and between them the ridge and the sky made a triangle with a ring of stars inside it. Grandad always said the old shepherds kept count of the moons so they'd know when the tups would turn. I stood there with the lamp guttering and felt foolish, and then I didn't.

He's in the top field now, grazing as if nothing happened. Mam has put the kettle on and wants to know if you're eating. I've told her you're living on tea and pride. Come home for lambing and bring a proper coat. The ram asked after you, or he would have if he could write.

Your brother, Owen