Three matching black ornamental tattoos with curled tapered ends sit on the inner wrists of three people.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Three matching ornament tattoos on wrists

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Three people's inner wrists each carry a small, identical black ornament with symmetrical curled and tapered ends. The linework is solid and even, with the ink appearing crisp against the skin. The three wrists are placed side by side in the frame against a soft, neutral background, with the tattoos centred on each wrist.

Forearm Ornament Swirl Matching tattoo Wrist

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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 ink came out of a tin of black gloss meant for the cabin roof, and Nell swore it would wash off by Sunday. It did not. We sat on the cratch board at Stallard Lock with the sun going down behind the mill, three of us, the narrowboat Wren Dolly tied up behind with her engine ticking as it cooled. Nell had drawn the mark on a scrap of the lock-keeper's ledger with a sharpened hairpin: a stem that curled back on itself at both ends, like a fern not yet opened, or a pair of scissors with the blades turned out.

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Father had painted that same curl on the bow of every boat he ever owned, and when he sold the last one to a dentist from Leeds he kept the brass plate and nothing else. We were not sentimental about it, or so we said. We pressed our wrists together under the lamp so the marks would line up, Nell counted to three, and Bet held the needle over the methylated flame until the tip blued.

The next morning the ink had gone to a dull grey and sunk into the skin like a bruise that had made up its mind. Bet took the tiller and steered us through four locks without a word. At each gate I rested my wrist on the windlass handle and saw the same stem, the same curl, and had the odd feeling of being counted.

Nell still says it is only a shape. But when the three of us take the boat out now, we reach for the paddles with the insides of our wrists turned up, and anyone watching would think we were checking the time.