Black and white photo of a blackwork-style lettering tattoo reading IT TAKES A BIT MORE on the side of a person's hip, above the waistband of their underwear.

Black stencil-style quote on the side of the hip

Lettering · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph shows a single line of bold, condensed capital lettering tattooed across the side of the hip, reading IT TAKES A BIT MORE, with slash marks at each end. The letters are solid black with crisp edges and an even, stencil-like finish. The camera is close, with the person's underwear and a loose top framing the upper edge of the frame and the text sitting in the centre of the skin.

Lettering Other Quote Text Lettering Slogan

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You find the card stencils in the drawer of Pask's bench, the oil on them gone tacky, the letters IT TAKES A BIT MORE cut in a condensed capital so narrow the T nearly closes on itself. Beyond the window the wood at the edge of Coldharbour is a black line against the fields, and the lamp hums over your hands.

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The parish wants the footbridge sign repainted before the harvest fair, the old board flaked to bare grey since the flood. Mrs Everard from the post office stopped by twice to say Pask never finished that line for anyone, that he always cut it last and kept it in the drawer. You hold the knife and feel for the old burr in the card, and you remember the three winters he spent teaching you to keep your wrist still while the blade went round a curve.

The stencil is true everywhere except the M. His knife slipped there years ago, and a sliver of card still bridges the middle of the letter, so the paint would fill it in and the word would read wrong. You could leave it and let the fault show. Instead you pin a fresh sheet flat and cut a new M, one stroke at a time, while the moths batter the glass and the wood settles outside.

In the morning you lay the stencil on the board, dab the black through, and lift it away. The slashes at each end sit exactly where he always made his tick marks along the edge of a board. By noon the paint is dry, and Mrs Everard reads the sign aloud twice, the second time with her lips moving over the M.