Black marker silhouette of a figure with a chain across the shoulder, reaching out to a small outlined star beside an outlined starburst, drawn as a tattoo design on plain white paper.

Silhouette figure with chain and star

Black and grey · Flash

A solid black marker silhouette of a figure in profile, with a chain looping over the shoulder and one arm extended towards a small outlined four-pointed star. An outlined starburst with diamond-shaped points sits at the lower left, and a few small outlined squares float around the hand. Black ink on white paper, with bold filled shapes contrasted against thin open linework.

Silhouette Figure Chain Star Starburst Hand Design

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

Dear Nell, you will not believe what Mr Okonedo did on Thursday. He came down Rook Lane just after midnight with the old crane chain still looped over his shoulder, the one that used to haul coal up from the barges, and he stopped beneath the last gas lamp by the canal. He said he wanted it off him before the bells went. Nobody on the night shift had a file big enough, so I walked him to Pell's yard, where the smith keeps his forge lit all night for the carters.

Keep reading

Dora Finch took one look at the links and laughed at us both. She set the chain across the anvil and struck the first bolt, and a spray of sparks flew up over the yard like a starburst, sharp and spinning, before the cold swallowed them. Mr Okonedo held out his hand to catch one, the way a child would, and I swear one landed in his palm and went out there. He didn't flinch. He only said, quite calmly, that it was lighter than he expected.

The last link would not give. Dora said it was not the iron holding it but the years of carrying it, and no hammer in Hollin would undo that. So he left the chain on the anvil with the bolt half through, and we walked back up Rook Lane with nothing on his shoulders at all. At the corner he stopped and looked up at a small star over the chimneys, the only one the smoke hadn't hidden, and he raised his hand towards it as though it owed him something.

I am writing this at the kitchen table with the kettle going cold. Come up at Easter if you can. The lamp is still lit outside, and Mr Okonedo says he will light the next one himself.