Pencil drawing of Thor's hammer with interlaced Celtic knotwork bands and a shaded moon behind it, shown as a tattoo design.

Thor's hammer with Celtic knotwork

Black and grey · Flash

A detailed pencil drawing of a Thor's hammer with ornate ridged detailing, scrolled cutouts and two curved bands of interlaced Celtic knotwork that sweep around its head. A shaded circular moon sits behind the hammer, and tapering swoosh shapes extend beyond the design on the left and right. The drawing uses graded grey shading and dark outlines on white paper with no colour.

Hammer Moon Crescent Knot

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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

Sit down, the lot of you, and put those glasses of warm cava on the trestle before someone knocks them over. Forty years since we last stood in this hall with our coats on the same pegs, and you still look like you're waiting for the bell. I'll tell you the story Mr Pollard told us about the hammer behind the boiler, because he's dead now and somebody has to keep his lies honest.

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The hammer hung on a nail in the boiler cupboard, wrapped in a tea towel that had once been yellow. Nobody knew who had cast it. Its head was ridged like a church door, and round its neck ran two bands of knotwork that never ended, one over, one under, so a child who tried to follow them with a finger lost the thread by the third loop. On nights when the moon came up full over the playing field, the knots caught the light and seemed to turn.

Dennis Harker, who kept the boiler and drank in the Crown, swore he saw the hammer lifted off its nail. He said the moon slid down the wall to meet it, a grey coin rolling along the bricks, and the hammer struck it once and split it clean in two. The crescent that fell away landed in the coal bunker, and that is why, to this day, the caretaker's dog won't go near the bunker after dark.

So when the hall lights dim tonight and you feel a draught from the back door, don't reach for your coat. Check the boiler cupboard. If the tea towel has slipped, leave it be, and walk home the long way round the field.