Close view of a small fine line tattoo of three black chevrons stacked on the outer forearm of a woman in a blue top and light denim shorts.

Three chevrons on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The photo shows a woman's forearm with three thin black chevron lines stacked one above another, pointing upward. The linework is crisp and even, with no shading, and the ink appears solid black. The arm is held against a weathered green wooden fence, with the tattoo sitting near the wrist and the hand resting at the side.

Fine line Geometric Forearm Chevron Line

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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

The first chevron went onto the lock wall the spring the Calder came over the towpath and sat in Mrs Haigh's cellar for a week. Dad held the lamp while Mr Ibbotson mixed black paint in a jam jar and drew a fat stroke, then a second to meet it at the point, aimed at the sky like a man who has been told to stop and is considering it.

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I inherited the brush and the lock key the winter Dad's chest gave out. By then there were three marks stacked on the grey stone, each a little higher than the one below, and every man from the council asked the same question. I told them the truth, which is that nobody remembers what the third one cost. The paint goes yellow and the stone keeps its own counsel.

Last August the river dropped so low you could walk out to the old shopping trolley in the middle. Standing in the silt, I measured the gap between the lowest chevron and the surface with my hand, and it was the width of two fingers. My granddaughter Amira, who was nine and sensible, asked why we bothered painting arrows at all if the water never listened.

I told her the arrows were never for the river. They point at the sky so the next person knows how far the water has come, and how far it might come again, and that somebody once stood on this wall and decided to write it down. Then I touched up the third one, very neatly, and let her hold the lamp.