Black and grey realism tattoo of an open pocket watch with Roman numerals and exposed gears, on the upper arm.

Realistic pocket watch on an upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A detailed pocket watch sits across the arm, with Roman numerals, engraved lettering around the rim, and exposed gears and hands. The shading is smooth and highly contrasted, with soft highlights on the metal and deep shadows in the case. The design fills most of the frame, with partial lettering along the top edge and a reference photo of a gold watch visible in the top left corner.

Realism Upper arm Pocket watch Clock Roman numeral Gear Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lift in Harrow Point had been broken since March, so every evening the old watchmaker climbed to the ninth floor with his tools in a biscuit tin. The tower's residents said the building had been put up in a hurry and its clocks had never agreed with each other. Mr Sable didn't argue. He only asked for the chairs in the stairwell to be left clear so he could sit and listen to the gears in the walls.

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A boy called Dev brought him a pocket watch from his grandmother's dresser, its case worn to a soft shine and its rim engraved with letters that had mostly rubbed away. Only the words United States of could still be read. Sable opened the back and looked at the works for a long time. The hands had been pinned at a quarter to twelve on purpose, he said, so that whoever owned it would have to come back for it. Dev asked who would come back. Sable said whoever had been waiting.

Each night he worked on the watch, and each night the stairwell hummed a little louder. On the ninth-floor landing a woman in a green coat stood at the window, looking down at the car park as though a bus might come that she had been promised. When Sable finished, he pressed the crown and the hands began to move. The woman turned, glanced at the brass face, and smiled as if someone had finally said her name correctly. Then she walked to the lift, which had started working again without anyone touching it.

Dev kept the watch. When the building's clocks ran slow, he took it out and set them by its small wheels, and the tower, for once, agreed with itself.