Black and grey realism tattoo across a shoulder and upper back, showing torn skin revealing armour straps, buckles and a Celtic knot on the pauldron.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Torn skin armour pauldron with Celtic knot

Realism · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a segmented shoulder armour plate with rivets, buckled straps and a round Celtic knot, all set within skin that appears torn open at the edges. The shading is soft and detailed, with strong highlights and deep shadows that give the metal and leather a three-dimensional look. The design is entirely black and grey and spans the shoulder and upper back, with the armour running diagonally across the frame.

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

Dear Ysolde,

Keep reading

You will laugh when I tell you what Master Hale had me do this week. The Harrowby lord sent his old pauldron down from the keep, the one his grandfather wore at Stanmoor, and it had been split along the top seam where a lance glanced off it. Hale wanted it mended in time for the wedding of the lord's youngest, so he set me to beating the tear flat and riveting a new plate beneath. I did the rivets myself. Eleven of them, one for each year the family has kept the grey-stone chapel at Orme.

The knot was my idea. Hale said knotwork was for cloaks and psalters, not for steel, but I had watched the chapel mason cut the interlace over the north door and could not forget it. So I scratched the great circle of it into the plate, over and under, without lifting the stylus once, and it came out clean as a braid. He grumbled, then he saw it in the lamplight, went quiet, and told me to keep it.

The buckle is the part I am proudest of. I set it so the strap runs across the plate at a slant, the way a cloak falls when a man is about to turn and offer his arm. On the morning of the wedding I fastened it for the lord's son, and he lifted his hand to test the reach, and the strap gave without a sound. He laughed and said the armour remembered him.

Write back soon. Tell me if the bride liked the blue ribbon I tied through the buckle. I have not told Hale I did that.

Yours in iron, Maud

More like this

Black and grey realism tattoo on a shoulder and upper back, showing torn skin that reveals metal armour plates with rivets and a buckle, with a Celtic knot on the shoulder cap.
Torn skin revealing armour with Celtic knot
Black and grey realism tattoo on the shoulder showing torn skin with armour plates, buckles and a Celtic knot.
Torn skin revealing armour and a Celtic knot
Black and grey realism tattoo on a shoulder and upper back showing torn skin revealing buckled armour straps and a Celtic knot disc.
Torn skin with Celtic knot armour on shoulder
Black and grey realism tattoo of riveted armour plates and a Celtic knot on a shoulder, with torn skin edges.
Torn skin armour plates on a shoulder
Black and grey realism tattoo of armour plates, a winged Celtic cross and chainmail across a man's upper arm and shoulder, with a torn skin effect at the edges.
Armour and Celtic cross on upper arm and shoulder
Neo-traditional tattoo of a stormtrooper helmet decorated with sugar skull patterns and blue flowers, framed by outlined roses and swirls, on a thigh.
Stormtrooper helmet with roses on a thigh
Realistic biomechanical tattoo on an upper arm and shoulder, showing torn skin revealing a metallic mechanical structure with rivets and cabling.
Biomechanical torn-skin design on upper arm
Colour tattoo of Gustav Klimt's painting The Kiss, with gold patterned robes and swirling spirals, on a bare upper back beside the shoulder blade.
Klimt's The Kiss on upper back
Black and grey realism tattoo of a stone guardian lion statue standing on the outer thigh.
Stone guardian lion on a thigh
Colourful neo-traditional tattoo of a spark plug, piston and engine parts with molecule diagrams and lightning, across an upper arm, shoulder and chest.
Spark plug and piston engine tattoo on shoulder and chest
Colour biomechanical tattoo across a shoulder and upper arm, showing torn skin revealing grey metal armour plates, rivets and a circular emblem.
Biomechanical torn skin on upper arm
Geometric dotwork tattoo on a leg near the knee showing a faceted male head with antlers, a raised hand and red roots below.
Antlered geometric figure on a lower leg

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