Small black ampersand tattoo on the inner wrist and forearm, in a lettering style, shown against pale skin.

Small ampersand tattoo on a wrist

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A single bold black ampersand sits on the inner wrist of a pale forearm, shown in close-up on a soft, slightly blurred background. The solid, smooth linework has a calligraphic curve, with no shading or added detail around it. The image is in black ink only, and the tattoo is small and centred in the frame.

Lettering Forearm Ampersand Symbol Wrist

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

Mrs Okafor's stall had the last good pitch under the iron canopy at the Corn Exchange, and Tomasz had promised to have the new board up before the rain came in off the river. He worked on his knees on an upturned crate, brush loaded with black enamel, while the drops ticked on the tarpaulin above him. The board read FRUIT AND VEG in old capitals he had copied from a tin of biscuits, and he had run out of room for the second word twice already.

Keep reading

He had spent the morning remembering what his father used to say about the ampersand. Dad had been a signwriter in Bradford for forty years and claimed it was the only character a man could sign his name in. You drew the loop first, then the tail, then let the stroke lift off the board like a bird leaving a wire. Tomasz had never believed him, but his hand did not shake when he drew it now, and the symbol came out fat and sure, its belly curling round like someone leaning in to share a secret.

Mrs Okafor came under the canopy shaking water from her coat. She stopped in front of the board and read it aloud, slowly, the way she read invoices. "Fruit and veg," she said. "Fine. Only you've made the and look like a little man falling over."

He laughed, wiped the brush on his sleeve, and told her it was the best she would get in this weather. She shook her head and paid him in coins warm from her pocket. When the rain eased he climbed down, and the board stood propped against the stall, the small black and holding the two words together above the cabbages.