Black tribal tattoo covering a shoulder, chest and arm sleeve, with a grey shaded panel of stars and a shield on the upper arm.

Tribal sleeve and chest piece in black ink

Blackwork · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A shirtless torso and arm are covered in dense black tribal patterns, including bands of chevrons, lozenges, scrolls and repeating circles across the shoulder, chest and sleeve. On the upper arm, a greyscale shaded panel shows stars and a shield-like shape with softer tonal blending. The image is a close, slightly angled shot with even lighting, and the body is cropped so no face is visible.

Blackwork Geometric Shoulder Upper arm Chest Forearm Tribal Geometric pattern Chevron Star Shield Sleeve Chest piece Scroll Circle

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nine canoes had gone out past the reef before the wind turned, and by the time the sky was the colour of wet slate only seven had come back into the lagoon at Vaiteki. Teuila stood on the shingle and counted them twice, the way her grandmother had taught her to count fish in a net, and when the count still came to seven she walked straight up to the carver's house without waiting for the tide to turn.

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Mere was sanding a paddle with a shark's tooth and did not look up. "Ioane took the long canoe," she said. "He'll be in the fold where the water goes round on itself. Lost boats always are."

"Then how do we reach the fold?"

"You don't reach it. You wait for the stars to come out in the right order and you follow what is drawn." She took a board from the wall, rubbed ash into its grooves, and turned it so Teuila could see the rows of small stars, the zigzag waves, and the shell-shaped mark that pointed toward the gap in the reef.

They waited on the rocks until dusk. The first star came out above the shell mark, then three more in the shape of a fish's fins, and Teuila understood that the carved shield was not a shield at all but a turtle's back turned to face home. She set a hollowed log on the water, lit the lamp inside it, and let the current take her toward the gap. The long canoe was there in the fold, turning slowly, with Ioane bailing and singing to keep the water low. He saw the lamp and laughed so hard he nearly tipped the boat. "Mere's board," he said. "I should have known."