Black lettering tattoo on a forearm reading Not all those who wander are lost, with a mountain silhouette and two arrows between the lines.

Wander quote with mountains on a forearm

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo sets the words NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST in stacked serif and sans lettering, with WANDER largest in the centre. A mountain silhouette and two small arrows sit between the lines, all in solid black ink with clean edges. The piece is shown straight on along the forearm against a pale room, with no colour.

Lettering Forearm Quote Word Mountain Arrow

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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

You will say the mountains are too close to be worth climbing, but Mr Fenwick drew them on the chart as if they were hiding something, and that is the whole reason you took the map from his drawer. The arrows along the margin point every way at once. Nobody on Skerrow has ever been able to tell you which one is north.

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Your mother kept the chart pinned above the range, the paper gone soft as cloth at the folds. She used to say the surveyor was not lost when he made it, only curious, and that a curious man will always walk further than he needs. You laughed at that. You laughed at most things she said before the boat came in with the wrong name painted on its bow.

Go up by the sheep track past the cairn. Where the path forks at the grey stone, take the left arrow, the one with the chipped feathering, because it is the only one he inked twice. At the top you will see the mainland lights, a scatter of them like spilt salt, and you will want to wave at them as if someone is watching.

Nobody is watching. Come down before dark anyway, and leave the chart folded under the cairn, its arrows pointing at nothing you need to follow.