Black and grey traditional anchor tattoo with a banner reading what a catch, surrounded by circular lettering and two stars, on an upper thigh.

Anchor and quote on a thigh

Traditional · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey anchor sits at the centre of the design, with a banner across its shank reading what a catch. Circular lettering reading I've got troubled thoughts and the self-esteem to match wraps around the anchor, with a star on each side. The ink is solid black with grey shading on the anchor and banner, shown on the upper thigh above a blue plaid garment.

Traditional Lettering Thigh Anchor Banner Star Quote Lettering

Find an artist for this

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 last train to Saltcombe Pier was due at twenty past nine, and by nine I had dropped the shutter on the ticket hatch and was sorting the lost property shelf by the light of the kettle. An umbrella with one rib sprung. Two left gloves. A paperback with a bus timetable for a bookmark. Nobody ever comes back for the travel sweets, so I eat those myself.

Keep reading

The young man who knocked on the glass at ten past had missed the train he meant to catch and a bag he had left on it. He was soaked through, the sort of wet that comes off the harbour wall rather than from the sky. He told me the bag had a blue tarpaulin tied round it and a brass ship's anchor clipped to the strap, and that the anchor was the only thing in it he cared about. I said anything left on the 8:45 would be in the cage by now, and went to look, because I could see he was building up to something.

The bag was there, wedged behind a pushchair. When I brought it round he didn't take it straight away. He stood with his hands in his pockets and said, "I've been telling everyone for a year that my head's a bad lot. Thought I'd better make a joke of it before anyone else did." I said I'd heard worse from the lads on the platform. He laughed, a proper laugh, and signed the lost property ledger in a hand like a seagull's footprints.

Under Reason for claim, where I usually write damp or sentimental, he had written: what a catch. I left it as he wrote it and stamped the page.