Enlarged with AI from a smaller original
Anchor and rope flash design
Traditional · Black and grey · Flash
A black ink drawing of an anchor wrapped in coiled rope, set on a sheet of white paper resting on a wooden surface. Small four-pointed stars and a crescent moon sit around the design, and the anchor's flukes feature eye motifs. The linework is bold and clean, with shading built from stippling and solid black areas.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Dear Tom,
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The reunion invitation came to Mum's house, forwarded twice, with a coffee ring on the envelope. I know you won't come, so I'll tell you what I'd have said across the car park of the Rose and Crown. Dad's boat, the Marigold Ann, is still tied up at the Scarborough harbour wall where he left her in March. Nobody has touched the knot. The rope has gone grey and stiff with salt, and the eye splice on the bow cleat looks like a closed fist.
The night before the funeral you and I sat on the wall and counted stars above the breakwater. You said there were four you could see and I said six, and we were both right, because one of mine was only the lamp on the café sign. Then the moon came up thin as a fingernail, and Dad would have called it a sailor's moon, which means nothing, but he said it every month.
I've been going down to the boat with a flask. Yesterday I found the old anchor under the tarpaulin, and on the flukes, scratched into the iron with a nail, were two small eyes. Dad did those when we were children so the anchor could keep watch for rocks. I laughed until I cried in the cold.
Come home for a weekend. Bring a pair of gloves. We'll cast off on Saturday, you and me, and see if we can still tie a bowline.
Love, Jo
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