Pencil sketch of a tattoo design showing an anchor wrapped in rope, a fishing rod and reel, and the words Teach a man how to fish, he feeds himself for life.

Anchor and fishing rod pencil sketch

Black and grey · Flash

Two pencil sketches on paper show a tattoo design of an anchor with rope wound around its shank, alongside a fishing rod, reel and hanging hook with a bobber. The phrase Teach a man how to fish, he feeds himself for life is written as lettering that curves beside the anchor in the first sketch and runs down the side in the second. The drawings use light grey pencil lines with simple shading on the anchor and rod, and the composition is centred with the anchor as the main element.

Anchor Rope Lettering Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the rod you left behind is still propped against the scullery door, though your mother has asked me twice to move it. I have not moved it. The reservoir above Hollin Row has been high since the rain, and the perch are fat under the willows where you used to sulk because they would not bite.

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The wheel stopped on Thursday. Nobody in the Club says the word closed, they say the wheel is resting, as if it might get up again. Mr Greaves from the lamp room came round with a sack of his own tackle and said the lads need something to do with their hands. I told him they have hands enough, what they need is a reason to get out of bed. Then I thought of the anchor you drew on the back of the envelope for your mother, and I had to go out to the yard for a minute.

You wrote that the Cornish boat has a cook who knows his fish and a skipper who swears at the gulls. Good. Learn what you can from both. The saying your grandad hammered into me is the one I keep coming back to: teach a man to fish. It was never really about the fish. It was about standing him by the water until he stopped waiting for someone to hand him his supper.

So here is my lesson, and it costs you nothing but a stamp. Find the lad on that boat who can tie a bowline in the dark and ask him to show you, slowly, until your fingers remember it. When you come home I will show you where the big ones lie under the bridge, and you can show me how that cook does his hake. Mind the rope on the winch. Your loving dad, Walter.