Black and grey vertical arrow tattoo with a solid arrowhead, tally-style marks along the shaft and feathered fletching, photographed on plain skin.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Vertical arrow tattoo with tally marks

Black and grey · Photo

A single arrow runs vertically through the frame, with a solid triangular arrowhead at the top and layered fletching at the base. Along the shaft, short bold strokes cross the line in irregular clusters, resembling tally marks. The ink is solid black with no shading or colour, set against a pale, evenly lit background of skin.

Arrow Arrowhead Fletching Tally marks

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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

Tuesday, Abingdon, rain since noon. Eleven in the tent tonight, counting the boy who came in for the warmth and the two dogs. Lorcan shot the apple off my hat anyway, because he says a man who misses a full house is only being honest. I made my mark on the shaft of the arrow pinned to the wagon wall. Nine strokes since Easter. They come in clusters, like rain on canvas, and I stopped trying to make them neat in March.

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Lorcan says the arrow is the only thing in the show that has never lied. It flies where it is pointed or it does not fly at all. The Vanes want a new banner painted for Stockport, something with lions and a gold rope, and Mr Vane has sold the ponies to a farmer outside Llandrindod. Nobody has asked me what I will do with my hands once the canvas comes down, and I have not decided whether to answer.

Thursday, Coventry, fourteen. Better. A woman with a pram stood at the back and clapped so hard the horses shied. I marked it with a longer stroke, crossing the shaft at a slant, the way Lorcan taught me to mark a clean hit.

Sunday, Leamington. Nobody came. We played to the moths and the open flap. Lorcan took the arrow down from the wall, held it up against the lamp and asked where the next mark should go. I said the fletching, where the feathers split. He laughed and said that was the place for things you could not take back. Then he snapped the last of the wood off the bow and carried it out to the wagons.