Black ink sketch of a stylised three-dimensional block letter with diagonal hatched shading and small bubbles, drawn as a tattoo design in a lettering style.

3D block letter with hatched shading and bubbles

Lettering · Black and grey · Flash

A pen drawing of a large, stylised block letter in a three-dimensional graffiti-influenced form, with a thick black outline. The sides and depth of the letter are filled with diagonal hatching in grey and white, and small outlined bubbles sit around the edges. The image is black and grey on a plain light background, with the letter filling most of the frame.

Lettering Letter Bubble Hatching

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nan, the big letter on the side of the lead wagon is finished at last, and I won't pretend I'm not proud of it. Mr Halloran wanted something that could still be read from the far end of the fairground car park, so I built the F up off the board like a block of timber someone had cut from the wrong tree. Three evenings went on the hatching alone. Grey on the underside, white where the lamp catches the top edge, and a fine black line round the whole thing that made my wrist ache by the end.

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The show is smaller than when you came with us. Four wagons now, the elephant gone to a sanctuary near Carlisle, and Tuesday's takings barely cover the feed. Mr Halloran walks the ring each night counting empty seats as though they might return if he stares hard enough. He says the F stands for Fortune, and that a new sign is the only honest thing he can afford. I told him paint can't sell tickets, but he paid me in cash, so I suppose I'm the one who was wrong.

The bubbles were his idea. He wanted them rising off the edges as if the letter was fizzing, as if something had just been uncorked. I put them at the lower corners where the wagon steps hide them from the road, so only the performers see them as they climb the ladder. Last night young Tomas stood under it with a bucket of water and laughed until he had to sit on the step.

I'm staying on to touch it up after the frost. Write back to the Hull address, not the depot, because the depot has changed hands already. Tell me what you think of the F. To me it looks like it's about to lift off the wagon, and I've decided that's the right message for a circus this late in the season.