Close-up of a small dotwork bow tattoo in black ink on the back of a wrist, with a hand curled beside it on a soft beige blanket.

Small dotted bow on a wrist

Dotwork · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A small bow outline is tattooed in black dots on the back of a wrist, with the fingers of the same hand curled out of focus in the background. The linework is built from individually spaced dots with no solid shading, and the design sits off-centre in the lower left of the frame. The palette is neutral: dark ink against warm skin tones and a pale, soft-focus fabric.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

Keep reading

The rain has been coming down on the Kirkgate stalls since six, and Mr Aldous has thrown a tarpaulin over the bolts of wool so the dye doesn't run. I've been sat under the awning with the tracing wheel in my lap, the little toothed one you gave me, and I finally got the bow right. Mrs Pargeter wanted a bow pricked onto a christening gown's sash, nothing fancy, just a loop and two tails, and every time I rolled the wheel across the chalk the teeth skipped and the line came out broken, like a sentence someone has forgotten halfway through.

Yesterday I went round three times with the pattern pinned flat and the wheel pressed hard enough to dot through the paper. Then I lifted the paper away and there it was: a bow made of tiny holes, each one dark where the chalk had sifted through. Mrs Pargeter held it up to the window and said nothing for a long while, which from her is praise.

I have kept the spare pattern for you. It's folded in my apron pocket, soft at the corners, and I'll bring it on Saturday if the market isn't washed out by then. Tell your mother the stall money is in the tin under the bolt of blue lawn, and not to let the lad near the scissors.

Yours in wet wool, Ada

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