Black ink tattoo of a ruler with the numbers 1 to 8 running across the inside of a forearm against a blue wall.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ruler with numbers 1 to 8 on a forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A ruler design runs horizontally across a forearm, with fine tick marks along the top edge and bold numerals 1 to 8 spaced along the lower edge. The tattoo is rendered in solid black ink with crisp, even linework and no shading. The arm fills most of the frame against a plain blue wall, and the ruler is shown fully within view.

Forearm Number Scale

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

Don't let the gulls fool you, boy. They've never measured a thing in their lives. Pass me that board off the hook and mind the wet end.

Keep reading

That's the Gwen Ellery's rule, see? Her first skipper had the numbers cut into the washboard the day she was launched, one to eight, with ticks finer than an eyelash so no man could argue with them. Every fish that came over the rail got laid along it before it went in the fish box. Pollack, whiting, the odd bream. Anything under the mark went back over the side, tail first, so it could find its own way down.

The year the herring went north, the owner came down the quay with his ledger and told old Huw Penrose to keep the short ones. Money's money, he said. Huw didn't answer. He took a whiting from the pile, laid it on the board, and it lay there under the four with its nose just shy of the line. Then he held it over the water until it kicked itself free.

The owner sacked him on the spot. Huw walked off the quay with the rule rolled in his coat, and the Ellery went out short that week and came back emptier. Next spring the owner came looking for him with his cap in his hands, and Huw was already out on the slip with a bucket of tar and a brush. Look at the four, boy. Worn smooth where his thumb used to rest.