Fine line black sailboat tattoo on the inner wrist, shown against a nautical chart with a raised hand.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small sailboat on the inner wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A hand is raised toward the camera with the inner wrist in focus, showing a very small sailboat tattoo with a single mast and sail above a short hull and wavy waterline. The linework is thin and dark with little shading, and the ink is black or dark grey against the skin. The blurred background is a nautical chart in pale yellow and blue with contour lines and printed markings.

Fine line Forearm Sailboat Boat Sail Wave Sea

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

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

Mother has finally stopped asking when you'll write, so I'm doing it for her and for me. The chart you left under the kitchen table is still there. I've been pinning my wool to it, which she says is mad, but the soundings near Gull Rock keep coming up the same way in every picture I try, so I think you'd want to know. Someone has pencilled a tiny boat beside the channel mark, a single mast and a sail no bigger than a fingernail. I didn't do it. Father swore he didn't either.

The harbour master came by on Tuesday asking after the Maud Eliza. I told him she was due back Friday with the tide, and he gave me that look men give women who know more about tides than they should. He said the weather had turned off the Dogger side and that boats were running in early. I went down to the quay at dusk and counted the masts twice. Yours was the one I counted last.

If you're reading this in some foreign port with ink on your hands, come home and tell me who drew on my chart. I'll put the kettle on and show you the mark. It's still there, pricked out in pencil, the sail pointing east as if it's trying to get back.

Love, Enid