Barcode tattoo with the word HUMAN

Lettering · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A black barcode sits on the skin, with the word HUMAN in capital letters below it and a small 0 and 1 at either end of the bars. The bars are crisp and solid, with clean edges, and the lettering is set in a plain, evenly spaced block typeface. The soft grey tones of the skin and the shadowed background frame the design in a black and white composition.

Lettering Other Lettering Number

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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

The ferry is late again, so the crates pile up along the quay at Skerra and you work the scanner the way your mother did, drawing each tin across its red eye while the wind tries to snatch the manifest from under your elbow. Beep. Beep. The till in the back room counts the peas and the paraffin and the tinned milk, and it never once asks where the milk came from or who is waiting for it at the bottom of the hill.

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Three weeks ago the mainland firm sent a new slip book with bars printed in the corner of every page. Under each one, in the same plain capitals, is a word, and the word on the top sheet is HUMAN. Mr Gilchrist from the post office laughed at it, then went quiet, then asked if he could keep a copy for his wife. Nobody on the island can say who decided that a sack of seed potatoes and a grandmother should carry the same two numerals at either end of their name.

On Tuesday a girl off the boat stood at the counter and watched you scan a box of matches. Beep. She asked what the 0 and the 1 were for, and you told her the truth, which is that they are the only two numbers the machine needs to tell one thing from another. She considered this, then pointed at the word beneath the bars. 'That's the bit it's missing,' she said, and went to find her father.

After closing you stand in the empty shop and run the scanner over the back of your hand, out of spite or curiosity. The little red light flickers, thinks about it, and gives up. In the dusk you can just make out a word someone has chalked on the wall beside the till, where the price should be.