Two solid black abstract shapes, one mottled and one resembling a clenched fist, in blackwork style on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Two bold black abstract shapes on upper arm

Blackwork · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

Two solid black shapes sit side by side on the upper arm of a person wearing a dark sleeveless top. The left shape is mottled with irregular cut-out areas, while the right shape has a curled, fist-like outline with lines suggesting knuckles and fingers. The ink is solid black on pale skin, against a dark background that makes the outlines stand out.

Blackwork Upper arm Abstract shape Fist Hand

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The dough would not rise that winter, and Ada Strickland swore it was the miller's fault. Her husband Tobias said nothing about the miller. He went out to the yard before the bells, broke the skin of ice on the trough with his bare hand, and came back with his knuckles raw and his mouth set.

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The flour had come from Hobb's mill in a sack already chewed by mice, grey with damp and spotted with dark patches where the rain had got in. Ada sieved it twice and still the loaves came out squat and sour. Tobias said the mill had watered the meal to make the weight. Ada said a fist could not make bread. He did not answer her, but the next morning he walked the four miles to Hobb's door in the dark and hammered on it until the miller's lamp came on.

Hobb opened the door in his nightshirt, and Tobias did not strike him. He held his fist up between them, knuckles white, and then slowly uncurled it, palm up and empty. 'Two sacks,' he said, 'and no more lies, or I'll be back with the whole village.' The miller looked at the open hand, then at the mouldy sack at his feet, and nodded.

When Tobias came home the oven was already hot. Ada had kneaded a new loaf, and before it went in she pressed the print of her own palm into the crust, so that whoever broke it would know who had made it. Tobias set it on the sill to cool as the first light came grey over the roofs, and the bread smelled of something plain and good.