Black outline tattoo of a stylised barking dog with short motion lines on the side of a person's ribs, with a small paper plane tattoo visible on the forearm.

Barking dog outline tattoo on ribs

Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A bold black outline of a stylised dog with a zigzag back and a squared body, shown in a boxy, simple line with short motion marks in front of its head. The tattoo sits on the flank above the waistband of jeans, with a white shirt lifted to the side. The image is in black ink only, with a small, fine-lined paper plane tattoo at the edge of the frame.

Ribs Forearm Dog Paper plane

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marjorie,

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You will not believe what the dog did on Tuesday. We were tied up below Hebden lock, the kettle on, when a man in a grey coat came down the towpath with a clipboard, the way men do when they are about to tell you the mooring fees have gone up. Pilot stood on the cabin roof, all four legs planted, and barked at him so hard the ducks left the water. He is not a large dog. He is more a box with opinions. But when he barks, the whole boat rattles like a drawer.

The man stopped. He looked at the dog, then at me, then at the dog again, and I swear he took a step back into the nettles. I told him Pilot had worked sheep in Cumbria before he came to me, and that sheepdogs never forget a job. He asked what the job was. I said keeping bad news off the cut.

He left a leaflet on the gunwale and walked back up the path without it. I have folded it into a paper plane, the way Tom taught me on a wet afternoon in Skipton, and I have been meaning to send it on to you. Here it is, enclosed. Fly it off the bridge if the wind is right and the water is high enough to catch it.

Pilot has gone to sleep on the coil of rope with one ear inside out. He will bark at something tomorrow. He always does.

Love, Ruth