Fine line black outline of a world map tattooed on a person's upper arm, with a blue dress sleeve at the left edge.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

World map outline on upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A thin black outline of the world map runs across the skin of an arm, showing Europe, Africa and parts of Asia and the Americas. The linework is single-weight and unshaded, with no solid fill. The blue fabric of a dress covers the left side of the frame, and the warm, soft-toned photo has a plain background.

Fine line Upper arm World map Map Continent Outline Africa

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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 have been copying the coastlines of the known world onto the north wall of the tower since the roof came down. Rain finds the arrow slit and beads on the lime plaster, so you work quickly, before the ink bleeds. Your master left the atlas open on the sill with its spine cracked, and each morning you find the page turned back to Africa, its corners weighted with the same two pebbles from the courtyard.

Keep reading

He was a careful man who trusted outlines. He told you that a map should show only where the land stops and the sea begins, because the interior is a rumour that changes with every traveller. So you draw the bulge of Europe, the long spine of the Americas, the ragged fringe of India, and you leave every inland river and mountain range blank. The parchment inside the lines stays pale, and the castle's visitors have started to say it looks like a map of a country that has not yet been filled in.

On the last night of the rains, a girl from the village climbs the stair with a bowl of soup and stops in front of the wall. She traces the coast of Africa with one wet finger and asks what lies inside. You tell her you do not know. She dips the spoon in the bowl, draws a thin line of broth across the blank space, and laughs when the wall drinks it up. Then she hands you the bowl and the pen, and you find yourself starting on the rivers.