Traditional style tattoo of a black anchor with a heart-shaped top, wrapped in gold rope and overlapped by a red lily, on the lower leg.

Anchor with heart, rope and red lily

Traditional · Calf · Mixed · Photo

A black anchor with a heart-shaped top and a gold rope coiled around its shank fills most of the frame. A red and orange lily with yellow stamens sits across the anchor's lower right, with bold black outlines and smooth shading on the anchor. The photograph is taken straight on against a light blue background, with the skin tone and bright colours clearly visible.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

Keep reading

The lock keeper at Sutton Stop has finally stopped asking when Tom will be back, which means he has decided I am not going to cry on his gates. Tell Mum the Ellen Jane is holding her paint, the cabin stove draws better since I cleaned the flue, and the cat has taken against the new rope. We are tied up below the mill tonight, and the river is that flat grey you get before rain.

The lily came off a cart at Gloucester. Tom bought a bunch for the cabin table from a woman selling them out of a bucket, and he was ever so pleased with himself for remembering they were your favourite. They have dropped orange pollen all over the chain locker, which Dad would have had something to say about. I told Tom to leave the blooms alone and let the rope do its work, but he said the rope would not mind a bit of colour.

Here is the thing I have not said in the last three letters. The anchor on the stern is the one Dad made from old railway iron, and he always said the heart on its crown was so the river would know whose boat it was. I laughed at him then. Tonight, with the coil of rope in my hands and the lamp hissing, I wish I had asked him what he meant before he went into the ground.

Tom is back on Thursday with the coal. If he brings flowers again, I will let him keep his secret, and I am pressing one of the petals between the pages of this letter so you can see for yourself how the orange holds.

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