Close-up of a small fine line crescent moon tattoo on a person's upper back, with a hand resting on their shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small crescent moon on a back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A small outlined crescent moon sits on the upper back, below the shoulder blade of a person with blonde hair. A second person's arm and hand rest across the shoulder from the front. The linework is thin and dark blue-black, with no shading, and the soft, neutral skin tones dominate the composition.

Fine line Back Crescent moon Moon Hand Hair

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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 Hettie, the council has finally sent the new paraffin lamps up Gallow Lane, and I have been out three nights running fixing wicks with my thumbnail because Aldous forgot the spare cloth again. You will laugh, but the men on the bridge now call me the moonkeeper, since I am the last one out and the first one in before the sky goes grey.

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Mr Pargeter at the chandlery asked me yesterday to draw something small on a card for his daughter's christening, a sign of the night, and I drew a crescent in pencil the way Father drew it on the gate. I gave him the card. He has since had the same mark pricked onto his own forearm by a man over in Keighley with a needle and a pot of ink, and he showed it to me across the counter, held out like a receipt. I told him the curve was wrong. He said the moon always looks crooked when you are standing on the ground under it.

I have been turning that over all week. Every lamp I light is only a small bright thing set where the dark would otherwise sit, and the moon does the same for the whole valley without asking anyone's leave. So tonight I climbed to the top of Gallow Lane with the last lamp in my hand and looked for it, and there it was, thin as a fingernail paring, and I did not feel the need to fix a single thing.

Come at Easter and bring the good scissors. The wicks are fine, the moon is fine, and I am looking forward to being useless to you for a whole afternoon. Your loving brother, Tom.