Black symbol tattoos across the finger joints of two clasped hands, with a plain ring on one finger against a dark background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Symbol tattoos on clasped fingers

Hand · Black and grey · Photo

Two hands are pressed together with fingers interlaced, showing a series of black angular symbols and runic-style marks across the finger segments. The linework is crisp and uniform, with the marks set in simple black ink and no shading or colour. The tight crop and dark backdrop focus attention on the hands, with a plain metal ring visible on one finger.

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

Your sister has been up since five, and by nine she is still picking at the seam of her dress with a pair of nail scissors, so you take the chair opposite her and hold out your hands. She laughs and says you look like a magistrate. Then she sees what you're doing: you have laced your fingers together, the way your grandmother did in the church pew, and you're asking her to read the marks across your knuckles like a shipping label.

Keep reading

Those marks are the family's joke, really. Your grandmother put them on everyone's fingers the summer you turned sixteen, using a biro and a ruler, and told you each one meant something useful. The arrow means go back for the thing you forgot. The three bars mean eat before you drink. The angular one, which looks like a broken gate, means you are allowed to leave a room without explaining. Your sister reads them out slowly, tapping each one, and when she reaches the arrow pointing down the length of your ring finger she stops.

It is the only mark that wasn't hers to choose. Your grandmother drew it last, the week before she died, and told your sister to leave it until the day it mattered. Tomorrow, when the vicar slides the band over your knuckle, the ink will have to sit beneath the metal and keep its shape.

Your sister slides the plain ring off your finger and turns it under the lamp. It's too loose. She fetches a length of red thread from her sewing basket and winds it twice around the band, then knots it neatly, so the arrow points where it always did. You look at the gate, the bars and the arrow, and for once you don't need anyone to translate them.

More like this

Clasped hands showing black hand-poked symbol tattoos on the fingers, including arrows, triangles and cross-like marks, with a plain gold ring on one finger.
Black symbol tattoos across clasped fingers
Black and white photograph of two weathered hands, each with a small black swallow tattoo on the back between the thumb and first finger, in a traditional style.
Two swallows on the backs of hands
Two hands with spread fingers showing small fine line black tattoos of astrological symbols on the fingers, including a sun, a crescent moon and a triangle.
Planetary symbols on fingers
Two clenched hands with small fine line black tattoos of symbols, including crescent moons, crosses and a key, on the fingers of each hand.
Small symbols tattooed across eight fingers
Close photograph of a small black abstract squiggle tattoo on a finger, shown against a dark, moody background.
Small black squiggle tattoo on a finger
Close-up of two hands pressed palm to palm, with small fine line black symbols tattooed on several fingers against a dark background.
Small symbols on the fingers of both hands
Fine line black cross tattoo on the back of a hand, with a silver twisted ring on the middle finger.
Small cross tattoo on the back of a hand
Black and white photo of a fine line cross tattoo on the side of a finger, with hands resting together.
Small cross tattoo on a finger
Two fine line black tattoos on the sides of pressed palms, one a knot-like loop with crossing lines and one a bar and circle symbol, on the hand.
Minimal black symbols on the hands
Two small black fine line tattoos on the side of a pair of pressed-together hands, one a crossed line with loops and the other a vertical bar with a circle.
Two minimalist line tattoos on the hands
Black and white photo of a hand with a geometric Geometric-style tattoo of a crescent moon, hexagons and small stars across the back of the hand and finger.
Geometric star and crescent hand tattoo
Two hands held together in a sepia photo, showing small black fine line anchor tattoos on two fingers.
Small anchor tattoos on fingers

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.