Black and grey blackwork tattoo of a head wrapped in a draped veil on the outer thigh.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Veiled head on the thigh

Blackwork · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo shows a head wrapped in a loose cloth or veil, with the face turned down and out of view. The linework is bold, with dense hatched and stippled shading on the head and folds of fabric. The design sits on the outer thigh and fills the frame against plain skin.

Blackwork Thigh Head Veil Figure

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Brother Sextus, the veil came off the block twice before the patron would let me touch the face, so you must forgive the state of my hands. The stone is Luna marble, the good grey kind that takes a chisel like cheese, and I have been keeping the drapes deep so the folds throw shadow when the sun comes round the tomb at noon.

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The family wanted the head bowed. Not sleeping, not weeping, only turned down toward the earth as if she had heard her name called from under the ground and was too shy to answer. I argued for an upright face. They paid me in silver to stop arguing. So I cut the chin into the collarbone and let the veil fall forward over the brow, and I hatched the cloth until it looked like something that had been folded by a careful woman's hands.

Last night I walked back by the harbour and a boy was selling lamps with the same drape moulded into the handles. Nobody there knew the face under it, and nobody needed to. I think that is what the patron wanted: a shape people could pass without asking whose it was.

I am sending the chisel set home with the carter Tiberius, who says he will reach you before the Ides. Keep the small point for yourself. You will want it for the eyes.