Black tribal blackwork tattoo covering a man's shoulder and upper arm, with circles, spirals and triangles in solid black ink.

Tribal blackwork shoulder and upper arm piece

Blackwork · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo covers the shoulder and upper arm with bold tribal-style motifs, including concentric circles, spirals, a central vertical element and rows of triangles. Solid black ink fills large areas, with the skin left as negative space to form the pattern. The shading is dense and even, and the design wraps around the curve of the arm against a plain black background.

Blackwork Shoulder Upper arm Tribal Circle Spiral Triangle Geometric pattern

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

Nan's flat on the eleventh floor of Hallam House smells of Vim and wet coats, and the lift has been broken since March, so you climb. On every landing the council had the walls painted years ago with the same pattern, rings inside rings, and a spiral someone has picked at with a key until the grey shows through. You count them the way other kids count lamp posts.

Keep reading

Tonight Nan's hip has gone again, so you carry her shopping up, two bags biting into your fingers. On the ninth landing a man sits on the step with a toolbox and a flask, a tin of black ink open beside him. He says the walls are the only honest thing in the block, a map of where the water runs and where the stairs turn, and he asks you to hold the torch steady while he touches up a ring with a brush.

He works fast, a straight line down the middle first, like a plumb line, then the triangles marching up the wall like the teeth of a saw. You watch the black swallow the grey paint and turn it into something older than the estate. Nobody reads these walls, he says. They just walk past them.

When he packs up, the lift is working again, its doors opening with a cough. You don't take it. You stand on the ninth step and press your palm flat against the centre of the wet ring until it comes away with its own small spiral printed on your skin, then you carry the shopping the rest of the way up in the dark.