Pale fine-line tattoo of a stylised branching tree on the forearm, shown under warm, low lighting.

Stylised tree on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of a forearm, cropped below a dark sleeve, with a stylised tree tattoo centred on the skin. The tree has a thin trunk, a branching crown and small dotted accents, drawn in fine, light-toned lines. The ink appears pale against the skin, and the warm lighting and background sit around the arm.

Fine line Forearm Tree Branches Dot

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, the gull that took the bread off the windowsill this morning had more manners than the post boat, which came in at noon with nothing for us but a bill from the ferry people and a parcel addressed to Father that he will not open. I have put it on the dresser beside the clock. Mrs Gillies says it smells of tar and must be from Hector's cousin, who never did learn to pack a box properly.

Keep reading

The tree is still standing on the north slope, the one I told you about before you sailed. Nobody planted it. The minister says it came up through the shale the winter the Maud went down off the skerry, and that its seed rode in on the wreck's timbers. It has hardly any leaves, only pale branches that look silver when the sun drops low, with small white knots along them like the stars you showed me from the deck. Seven, you said. I could never count past five before my eyes watered.

Here is the thing I meant to write. Yesterday I climbed up with a sack of wool and a knife, meaning to cut a sprig for the church window, and found the bark already scored. It was a neat small mark at the height of a man's shoulder, the same mark Father used to make on the lambs he kept back. Someone has been up there before me. I have not told anyone. I would rather wait until you come home and tell me it was you.

Write back soon, and tell me the sea has not made a stranger of you yet. Your sister, Ruth.