Fine line and dotwork tattoo on the inner upper arm of a tree within a circle, with a mandala-style lotus beneath it.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tree in a circle with mandala on upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A small tree with a full canopy and bare branches sits inside a thin circle, with a dotted mandala or lotus motif beneath its trunk. The linework is fine and the shading uses stippled dots and light grey tones, with no colour ink. The design is centred on a plain white background, with the arm filling the left and lower parts of the frame.

Fine line Dotwork Geometric Upper arm Tree Mandala Lotus Circle Branches

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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

Dear Nell, the ship has been rolling so long now that the water in my basin has learnt to slop at the same time each morning, and I have stopped minding. Mr Hadley says we are past the Cape and nearly into warm water, and tomorrow the glass cases come up from the hold so I can water them before the sun reaches the deck.

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There are eleven of them, each no bigger than a hatbox, lined with copper and bolted under the skylight. Inside, the seedlings are the only green thing in three months of grey. The oak has lost its leaves twice and grown new ones, and the ash has a crooked stem I have tied to a matchstick with thread. The captain says a sapling that survives the crossing is worth more than a cask of wine in Sydney, so I talk to them the way Father talked to his bees, and nobody laughs.

Last Sunday a squall tore the skylight open and the spray came in sideways. I held a wet sheet over the cases until my hands bled and the cook came down with a lantern and didn't say a word. When the weather eased, the oak stood there with its one bent branch still reaching for the light, as if the storm had only been a draught it had decided to ignore.

I have drawn it for you on the back of this page: a ring for the glass, the tree standing inside it, and a little lotus of dots beneath the roots, because the gardener at Madras said every tree needs something to hold it to the ground. When we land I will plant the ash in a circle of stones by the river. Tell Mother it will be taller than the chapel roof by the time you read this.