Black and white photo of a fine line script tattoo reading always across the side of a finger.

Always script on a finger

Lettering · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of the word always written in thin, cursive script across the side of a finger. The linework is fine and even, with the lettering running diagonally along the finger. The image is monochrome, and the dark background isolates the hand and tattoo.

Lettering Fine line Hand Always Script Word Finger

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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

The rain has been coming sideways across Bell Yard market since six, and you have wiped the same tin tray four times already. Your pens stand in a jam jar beside a ledger nobody reads. Mrs Okonedo on the fruit stall next door shouts that nobody writes letters any more, and you tell her that is exactly why you are still here.

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A young woman ducks under your awning with her collar up and a pound note folded small in her fist. She wants a word written on a scrap of card, the kind you sell for a penny to people who would rather not trust their own handwriting. She doesn't say who it is for. She asks for always, thin and slanting, the way her nan used to write on the backs of birthday cards. You unwrap the fine nib from its handkerchief and work slowly, because the damp wants to bleed the ink into the grain.

Halfway through the second a, the card goes soft under your fingers and you have to start again on a fresh one. She doesn't hurry you. She watches the water run off the edge of the awning in a thin bright line and says nothing until you hand the card over. She holds it up against the grey light and tilts it so the letters catch.

She leaves the pound on the tray and walks off towards the station with the card inside her coat. By the time the lamps come on, the market is empty and the cobbles shine like slate. Your tray is wet through, but the card she didn't take, the spoiled one, lies face up beside the jam jar, the word still legible where the rain has softened its edges.