Small black fine line arrow tattoo with a curled detail on the upper chest, near the collarbone.

Small arrow tattoo on upper chest

Fine line · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

A small black arrow with a curled, hook-like element along its shaft sits on the upper chest, just below the collarbone. The linework is thin and solid with no shading, and the ink is crisp against the skin. The photograph is a close, slightly angled crop showing the neck and chest, with the wearer's chin and face out of frame and hair falling across one side.

Fine line Chest Arrow Swirl Collarbone

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

Nell had repainted the waymark on the Bwlch post every April for eleven years, and every April the wind took the black off the arrowhead before the sheep were back on the high grass. This spring she brought a tin of tar and a finer brush than her father ever used, because the arrow had to be seen from the far side of the col in sleet. The hook she left until last. It was an iron curl her grandfather had bent to hold a lantern, and the paint always wanted to smooth it over.

Keep reading

The carrier from Dolgellau came up the track on the third morning of the thaw, a lad with a satchel and a face the colour of wet slate. He asked why the marker pointed up at nothing but cloud. Nell told him the pass was there, under the cloud, and that the hook was for the lantern when the cloud came down to meet you. He laughed and said nobody lit lanterns for a signpost. She didn't argue. She had lit one for her brother years back, when he came over the top in the dark and followed the curl of iron down to the cairn.

That evening she climbed the post with the lantern, trimmed the wick, and hung it on the hook. The carrier watched from the track below until the light swung and steadied, a small yellow thing against the grey. Then he turned his collar up and went down into the valley with one hand on the satchel, and Nell stayed at the post until the lantern had burned to the stub, which was how her father would have wanted it done.