Black and grey fine line tattoo on a forearm showing a wave inside a circle, with triangles, arrows and dotted geometric lines.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Wave in a circle with arrows on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a curling wave enclosed in a thin circle, with a small triangle above and a vertical line ending in an arrow below. A second dotted circle sits lower down, and small arrows and tick marks radiate from the main circle. The linework is very fine, with stippled shading on the wave, and the photograph is taken against a plain pale skin background with a blurred studio setting behind.

Fine line Geometric Dotwork Forearm Wave Circle Triangle Arrow Dotted circle Line

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The Ferryman's Wife is still on the slip at Porthleven, and Dad has finally stopped pretending he doesn't want her back in the water. I went down this morning with the drawing you sent, the one with the wave folded inside its ring, and held it up against the hull the way you'd check a chart against a coastline. The triangle sits where the bow sits. The long arrow runs straight down the keel to the second circle, which is exactly the depth the sheets give for the bar at low spring tide. You always did say the sea was a map if you looked at it sideways.

Mrs Penhallow from the chandlery came out and asked if you were getting married. I said not yet, and she said the arrow looked like a question mark that had fallen over. I laughed for longer than was polite.

Here is what I need from you. Send the tide tables for March, and tell me which way the ticks point on the page you copied from. Dad says the small arrows radiating out are bearings, not decoration, and that you were a fool to put them on a sailor who can read them. He also says he has not slept properly since the wave came up in your last letter, the one that curled over the margin and stopped.

Come home before the spring tides. The slip is ready, and so am I.

Love, Jenny