Small black ink tattoo of three circles, each with an arrow above and a letter inside, on the side of a finger.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Three circles with arrows on a finger

Hand · Black and grey · Photo

Two photographs show a small tattoo of three linked circles, each topped with an upward arrow and containing a single capital letter, on the side of a finger. The linework is bold and even, with solid black ink and no shading. The skin is light and the background is plain, so the design is the clear focus.

Hand Circle Arrow Letter Initial

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

Sit yourselves down and mind the fire, because this is the tale of the three checks, and my grandad had it from a man who was there the morning they were struck. At the Ashworth pit every man who went below was handed a brass check the size of a farthing, stamped with an arrow pointing up, so the banksman could see at a glance that you had gone down and were meant to come back up. Three lads went down the same shift that winter: Matthew Cole, Ceri Lloyd and Rhys Parry, all of them barely past their boots.

Keep reading

That afternoon the roof came in at the far end of the drift, and the cage stopped at the three hundred foot mark with a shudder that rattled the teeth in your head. Dust hung so thick the lamps were no more use than candles in a chapel. Ceri had the only tinderbox, and he spent the last of it sparking one wick, and by that small light the three of them sat with their backs to the coal and passed a hymn book from hand to hand, each one reading the verse he could still see.

They were dug out nineteen hours later. Rhys swore the arrows on the checks had turned in their palms, though he was never quite sure which way they had been pointing before. Matthew's wife kept his check on a nail by the door until she died, and when the house was cleared it was found still hanging there, the little arrow pointing up at the rafters, as if it had never been told the shift was over.

So when you go down, lads, and you will, check your arrow before you check the cage.