Black tribal tattoo with swirls and triangular patterns curving down the side of a torso over the ribs.

Tribal band tattoo on the side ribs

Blackwork · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of a black tribal tattoo running diagonally across the side of a torso, from the upper ribs towards the hip. The design combines bold solid bands with fine patterned fills, spiral curls and rows of small triangles. It is rendered in black ink and grey shading against warm skin, with the waistband of dark underwear visible at the bottom of the frame.

Blackwork Ribs Tribal Swirl Triangle Spiral Band

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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 lock keeper at Hythe Cut had his arms folded before we were even through the gate, and I knew from the set of his jaw that the Nell was going to cost us a day. Dad said nothing. He steered her in against the wall with the tiller tucked under his elbow, the way he had for thirty years, and waited for the water to climb.

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My sister Ada had painted the pattern along the cabin side that spring, black bands swept down the hull like a wake frozen in place, with curls at the turns where the current bit hardest. She had copied it from a book of old island carvings she found in the library at Gainsborough, and Dad grumbled that it looked as if a sea serpent had got into the paint pot. But on still mornings, when the sun came low over the reeds, the curls caught the light and the whole boat seemed to be turning back on itself.

Halfway up the flight the gates groaned open and we crept into the chamber. The keeper gave me a long look over his glasses. I pointed with the boathook at the little stepped triangles Ada had marched along each band, and he laughed in spite of himself. Dad let out a breath I hadn't known he was holding.

We came out onto the long pound at dusk, the water flat and copper, and Dad finally took his hand off the tiller. Behind us the wake unwound in two slow spirals before it smoothed back into the river, and I thought Ada would have liked that best of all.