Black scrollwork armlet with small gems and hanging chains across an upper arm, worn over a dark top with greenery behind.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Scrollwork armlet with hanging chains

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black ornamental band of scrolls and small gems wraps around the upper arm, with two thin chains hanging down from its centre. The linework is solid and uniform with no shading, and the design appears to be a temporary or stick-on piece rather than ink. The image is in colour, with a dark top at the left and soft pink flowers and foliage blurred in the background.

Upper arm Scroll Chain Gem

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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 Nell, the chain you asked about is finished, though Mr Tolley says I have wasted a week of good silver on it. He wanted it plain, a bracelet for a bank clerk's daughter. I made it instead as a band of scrolls, the kind you see on the gates at Aston Hall, and set three little paste stones along the top where the light catches them.

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The commission came through the back door of the shop on Vittoria Street, in an envelope with no name, only a sketch and a sum of money that made Mr Tolley shut the door before he counted it. The sketch showed a band of curling ironwork with two chains hanging from its middle like ribbons off a May Queen's crown. Nobody told me who it was for, and I did not ask.

I filed the scrolls until my wrist ached and soldered each link by hand, twenty-two links to the first chain and twenty-three to the second, because the second had to be a little longer so it would swing when walking. That was the part I liked best, thinking of it moving rather than sitting still in a case. Mr Tolley says jewellery is meant to stay put. I think it is meant to be worn.

Last Thursday a parcel came back with a note in green ink that said only that the second chain was exactly right. I have kept that note in my apron pocket all week. I have also started drawing scrolls in the margins of every invoice, Nell, and I fear I am ruined for plain work.