Close view of two clasped hands with the word ALWAYS tattooed in black capitals along one finger on each hand, in a lettering style.

ALWAYS lettering on two fingers

Lettering · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

Two hands are clasped together, with the word ALWAYS tattooed in bold black capital letters on the side of one finger of each hand. The lettering is solid black ink with crisp edges and an even, slightly italic slant, and the skin tone is warm with soft natural light. The composition is tight, focusing on the fingers and the tattoos against a dark, ridged background.

Lettering Hand Always Word Text

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The Hollis window went up tonight, the last of the gold leaf on the second S, and I stood on the pavement at half eleven with the lamp still buzzing in its bracket and the whole of Chapel Street asleep. You'll laugh when I tell you I painted it backwards. Glass signs are done from the inside, every letter mirrored, so that the street reads it true. Mrs Hollis wanted one word and nothing else: ALWAYS, slanted the way her husband used to lean on the counter, leaning in.

She came by on Thursday with a shoebox of his old receipts and asked whether it would hold up through the winter. I said gold leaf outlasts most of us. She said she didn't want it to outlast the shop, she wanted it to outlast her, and I didn't know what to say to that, so I mixed the size a little thicker and kept my eyes on the brush.

Tonight, from the lamp, I could see the word from across the road. Reversed in my hands, correct in theirs. A man passing on the far pavement stopped, read it, and touched the brim of his cap at nobody in particular. I don't know who he was. I don't know who the word was meant for, only that it had been asked for twice, once by a man who isn't here to ask and once by a woman who is.

Mrs Hollis will be in at nine to collect the last invoice. I've put the brush away clean. Come up at Easter and I'll show you the window in daylight, when the sun comes through the glass and throws the letters back across the counter, backwards, the way I learned them.

Yours, Danny