Solid black silhouette tattoo of a standing figure with one arm raised and a cape-like shape behind it, on the outer forearm.

Black silhouette of a raised-arm figure on a forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A solid black silhouette of a standing figure with one arm raised above the head and a cape-like shape falling from the shoulders. The shape is filled with flat black ink with no visible linework or shading, set in the middle of a pale forearm. The photograph is taken straight on against a home interior with a patterned rug and wooden cabinets in the background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Come closer, the lot of you, though there's precious little left to come closer to. Look at the sawdust. Forty winters I've swept it, and it still remembers the shape of every act that ever stood in it. Mind the patch by the poles, that's where Old Tobias landed the night the big top came down in Carlisle, and the cloth still wears his shadow.

Keep reading

The strongman's gone to the docks and the clowns have taken jobs selling carpets in Leeds. What's left is me, a mule called Patience, and the sign-painter's boy who insists on calling himself the Lord of Lanterns. He stands at the far pole each evening with a single lamp held high, the way the old strongman used to lift the weights, and he won't say why. I've asked. He only tells me the light has to be seen from the lane.

So last Thursday I went out past the wagons to watch for myself. The lane was black and the wind smelled of coal smoke, and there he was, one arm straight up, cape of old canvas snapping behind him, as dark against the hedge as ink on a page. A car rolled past and its headlamps swept over him, and for one breath the whole field lit up, every guy rope and empty seat accounted for.

The driver never slowed. I didn't expect him to. But I went back in and I swept the ring one last time, slowly, and I left the lamp burning for whoever might still be looking.

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