Small black cross tattoo in simple linework on the side of a finger, with silver nail polish, shown against a pale background.

Small black cross on a finger

Geometric · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A small, plain black cross is tattooed on the side of one extended finger of a hand, with a second finger raised beside it. The lines are solid and even, with no shading, and the cross sits near the middle knuckle. The ink is black on light skin, and the pale, softly lit background keeps the focus on the tattoo.

Geometric Hand Cross

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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

The ferryman at Lessing Ford does not ask for papers. He asks for the name you were given at the last crossing, and when you say it he takes the nib from the tin on his bench, dips it, and makes one stroke down and one across, quick as a tally. Nobody in the village can tell you why it's a cross and not a tick. He says the river knows the difference.

Keep reading

You stand in the queue behind a woman with a goat on a rope and a boy reciting multiplication tables under his breath. The guards on the far bank wear coats too heavy for the August heat and read every document twice, holding each one up to the light as if the ink might lie. Your own papers are folded in an inside pocket, and they are good papers, and they are no use here. The ferryman's mark is the only thing that has ever got anyone across.

When your turn comes he studies the old mark from last winter, now faded to a grey smudge, and clicks his tongue. "Going the wrong way," he says. He wets his thumb, rubs at the old line until it almost disappears, then draws a fresh cross beside where it was, pressing harder, so that for a moment the two shapes look like a small window.

The guards wave you through without a glance. On the far bank you turn back, and through the willows you can see the ferryman lifting one hand, and you understand he is not waving goodbye but checking that the ink has taken.