Black and grey realism tattoo on an upper arm showing a lightning storm over a receding road with a Route 66 shield at the bottom.

Route 66 road under a lightning storm on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A long straight road runs towards a flat horizon with dark trees and telegraph poles beside it, under a sky of heavy clouds with forked lightning. The piece uses soft shading and fine highlights for the clouds and lightning, with the road lines rendered in pale grey. A Route 66 shield sits at the lower edge of the design, and the tattoo fades smoothly into the surrounding skin.

Realism Upper arm Lightning Storm Cloud Road Shield Horizon Tree

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nell Harker had been driving the old road since Tulsa with the windows down, because the radio found nothing but static and the telegraph poles kept time beside her, one every few seconds, like someone counting under their breath. Ahead the horizon was a flat grey ruler, and above it the clouds had stacked themselves into a shape her grandmother would have called a bishop's hat.

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Her grandfather had told her about storms out here. They walked the plains like giants looking for something they had dropped, he said, and when they found it they struck the ground with a fist of white fire. He had also told her never to drive toward lightning and never to shelter under a lone tree. Nell had never believed a word about giants, but she had learned to respect the fork.

The first bolt came down a mile off and split the dark trees by the road into a brief white map of branches. The second was closer, and it lit the shield sign at the roadside so bright she could read the painted 66 through the glass. She counted under her breath. The thunder came on two. Her hands stayed steady on the wheel, and the pale lines of the road ran under the tyres like chalk marks on a slate.

She did not stop. Ahead, the road ran straight as a rule into the cloud, and the giant, whoever he was, lifted his head from his searching, saw a small car keeping to the middle of the lane, and let her pass.