Black and grey tattoo of the numerals 1689 surrounded by scrollwork on the back of a hand, resting on a dark leather book.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

1689 numerals with scrollwork on the hand

Hand · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows the back of a hand with the numerals 1689 in bold, shaded black lettering, framed by ornamental scrollwork and flourishes in grey. The hand rests on a dark leather book with gold lettering along its spine. The image is taken at a close angle, so the tattoo fills most of the right side of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The binding had split along the spine by the time Edith Lowe carried it through to the back room, and she set it on the bench as if it might bruise. Someone had written the year on the flyleaf in brown ink, crossed it out, then written it again, larger, as though the first figure had been a lie. The gold lettering on the cover had worn to the colour of weak tea. The leather still smelled of damp coats and a chapel pew.

Keep reading

Mr Caddick had bound books in Northampton for forty years and did not like to be hurried. He wet his thumb and turned the leaves slowly, reading aloud the odd line that caught him. 'Election, decrees, the offices of the church,' he said. 'They argued over water as if it were gold. Every sentence cost somebody a cold walk to the river.' Edith asked who had owned it. 'A carter, a deacon, a widow who wanted it burnt,' he said. 'Books outlive their arguments. That is their only charm.'

Inside the back board, pressed flat against the pasteboard, she found a folded slip of paper with a column of names and a pencilled tally beside them, one stroke for each Sunday someone had come to hear the reading. The last stroke was dated 1931. Edith held it up to the window. Mr Caddick took the slip from her, read it twice, and tucked it back where it had been.

They sewed the signatures back that afternoon using waxed linen, one section at a time. When Edith came to the cover she wanted to press the old flourishes flat, to make the year look tidier. Mr Caddick stopped her. 'Leave the marks,' he said. 'Somebody counted their Sundays on the inside. The outside can keep its numbers.'

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