Black and grey traditional anchor with a coiled rope on the side of a man's neck, just behind his ear.

Anchor with rope on the side of the neck

Traditional · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A small black and grey anchor with a rope coiled around its shaft sits on the side of the neck, behind the ear. The linework is bold and outlined, with grey shading along the flukes and stock that gives the anchor some depth. The tattoo is centred in the frame against smooth skin, with the ear and beard partly visible at the edge.

Traditional Neck Anchor Rope

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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We rode out the blow off Flamborough with both anchors down and the cable singing like a wire fence. Cook swears the Mary Ann has never dragged in her life, and I believed him right up until the forecastle lamp swung clean over and the mate started shouting for the windlass. Mr Tulloch took the bitter end himself, bare hands, and wrapped it round the stock the way his father taught him, two turns and a half hitch, so the rope would hold the anchor square when we hauled it up streaming at dawn.

I have been watching that coil ever since. It sits on the rail now, where the spray can't reach it, and it is the only thing aboard that looks as tidy as it did in harbour. Tulloch says a rope round an anchor is a promise the thing will come home. I think that's nonsense, but I did not say so.

We made Scarborough by noon. The flukes were scraped bright and the old tar had come off the shank in long black ribbons. Tulloch unwound the rope and handed the end to me without a word, and I understood that I was to learn the knot, because he would not always be there to tie it.

Mother will want to know whether I am eating. Tell her yes. Tell her I can tie a round turn now, and that the sea has not had me yet.

Your brother, Jack