Pencil sketch of a single balloon on a long thin string, with the words let it go beneath it, suited to a fine line tattoo design.

Balloon with the words let it go

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A single balloon drawn in soft grey pencil floats above a long, thin vertical string. Below it, the lowercase words let it go are written in a small, neat script on an off-white background. The composition is minimal, with plenty of empty space around the balloon and text.

Fine line Balloon String Text

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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

Dear Odette, the man at the fairground stall sold me a balloon today the same way I used to sell you sweets, which is to say he gave me the wrong change and I pretended not to notice. It was red once. Now it has gone the colour of a plum left in the bowl too long, and the string has a knot your grandad would have called a sailor's disgrace. I am writing this on the back of the gas bill because the good paper is in the drawer under the tea towels, and I cannot find my spectacles, so forgive the wobble.

Keep reading

You rang on Tuesday and asked me again whether I was sleeping, and I said yes, which was a lie you will forgive because I have been practising it for thirty years. The truth is I sit by the window at night and watch the lamps along Carrow Road come on one at a time, like somebody is going round lighting them for a party nobody has told me about. I hold the string and it pulls, very gently, the way a dog pulls when it smells the sea.

So I have done what the little card in the bag suggested. I took the balloon to the top of the multistorey car park on Sunday night, where the wind comes straight off the river, and I opened my hand. It did not go up at once. It sulked against the railing for a minute, bobbing like it was deciding whether I was worth the trouble. Then it went.

I am not telling you this so you will worry. I am telling you because you asked me once what I was holding on to, and I did not have an answer for you. Now I think I do. Your grandad's string, mostly. Write when you can. Tell me what the lamps look like from where you are.

Love, Nan