Fine line black outline tattoo of the world map on the side of a thigh, with an orange floral fabric above it.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

World map outline on a thigh

Fine line · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A single-needle style outline of the world map covers most of the upper outer thigh, showing North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The linework is thin and even in black ink, with no shading or fill inside the continents. The skin is pale and the orange and green floral fabric at the top of the frame gives the photo a warm, natural background.

Fine line Thigh World map Map Continent Outline Globe Travel

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The Dunmore fair pulled into Shrewsbury on Tuesday with the wagons sunk to their axles in the mud, and I've spent three evenings trying to get the big globe on the Waltzer to turn without the bearing screaming. Your mother would have fixed it in ten minutes with a teaspoon and a bad word. I've only managed the bad word.

Mrs Pardoe from the candy stall asked after you. I told her you were in Lisbon, which is where your last postcard said, though the stamp was Madrid. She said that was the trouble with maps, nobody could agree on the edges. I've been thinking about that. I pulled the old atlas off the van shelf and traced the outlines of the continents onto greaseproof paper, one line each, no colour, the way you used to trace the seed packets. Africa came out fat and lopsided, Australia like a dropped biscuit, and the Americas took the whole morning because the coast kept folding back on itself.

Enclosed is the sheet. I've pinned it inside the lid of the cash box, over the place where the float goes, so I see it every time I count out change. Look at the bottom right. That's where you said you'd go next, and I've left a gap in the line there, about the width of a thumb, so you can fill in the bit I couldn't reach.

Write when you can. Don't worry about the edges.

Dad