Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a long sword with a stylised tree above and two elvish-style letters on the calf, shown from two angles.

Sword, tree and script on a calf

Dotwork · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

A long double-edged sword runs vertically down the lower leg, with a stylised tree with a crown-like top above the crossguard and two angular script characters beside the blade. The sword and tree are outlined in bold black lines, with the blade and tree shaded using stippled dots and soft grey tones. The photo is shown as a pair of views of the same leg, one straight on and one angled, against a plain skin background.

Dotwork Calf Sword Tree Script Letter Crown

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The sword came in on Tuesday wrapped in a feed sack, snapped a hand's width above the grip, and the man who brought it would not give his name. He only wanted the blade mended so it would stand straight again. The tang had a little tree punched into the steel, its crown spread like smoke, and two letters I could not read beside a seam of hammer marks. I told him I'd need a week. He said he had until the first frost.

I spent three nights at the forge with the bellows going and the window black. Some of the work was fire and patience, and some of it was simply not wanting to ruin the fuller, which runs down the blade like a river cut into the metal. When I finally dressed the edge and ran my thumb along it, the steel rang the way the old anvil does on a cold morning, clear and a bit mournful.

He came back on the Friday, looked at it a long time without touching it, then asked what he owed. I said nothing, he'd paid already in coal and stories. He laughed and said the letters meant "remember" in a tongue nobody speaks now, which was more than I'd guessed.

I'm sending you the old crossguard I kept back from the repair. Put it on the windowsill where the tree can catch the light, and think of me when the frost comes.

Love, Tom