Black lettering tattoo in a rectangular frame reading The Truth is rarely pure and never simple, placed on the back of a woman's neck.

Boxed quote on the back of the neck

Lettering · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A photograph from behind of a woman with her hair in a loose bun, wearing a dark top with a small floral print. A black lettering tattoo sits on the back of her neck, reading The Truth is rarely pure and never simple inside a thin rectangular border. The text mixes a bold script for The Truth with spaced capitals for the other lines, set on a plain white background.

Lettering Neck Quote Text Frame

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The master wanted the notice for Hollins Pit set by Monday, and he wanted it boxed, a thin rule round the lot, so the Board could say nothing had been crowded out. Tobias had taken the cart to Leek, and the boy could not space a line to save his life, so the job came to me. I had the composing stick in my left hand before the kettle was on.

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I set the first line in the bold face with the swelling curls, because the master always said a man will believe anything that looks carved on a headstone. The rest I spaced out in plain capitals, IS RARELY PURE, then a short rule, then AND NEVER SIMPLE. It sat well. The black ink took it clean and the box held everything in like a coffin lid. I was rather proud of it. Mr Ashdown came down on the Tuesday with his hat already in his hands, which is how you know a manager has come to take something back.

He read the proof twice, moving his lips. 'Pure,' he said. 'Who put pure there?' I said it was only the words he had given me, and he said he had given me no words, only told me to print the fire regulations. We stood among the cases for a while. Then he told me to pull the forme and set it again, plain, and he would sign for the paper himself.

I did pull it. The lead went back into the case letter by letter, except for one N from NEVER, which had gone into my waistcoat pocket while he was looking out of the window. I have it still. It is no bigger than a sugar lump, and when the lamp is low I can make out its shape the wrong way round, the way a word reads in a mirror.