Forearm tattoo sleeve in black ink with a row of knives, a pig butchery diagram, a pig cut chart, peas and a line of script, placed on the inner forearm.

Butcher-themed forearm sleeve

Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A forearm sleeve of bands and panels showing a row of knives, a pig cut diagram, a cut chart and small peas, with a line of script running across the upper arm. The linework is bold black outline with grey shading in the knife blades and cut lines, while the peas and a few food shapes carry green and tan colour. The design wraps around the forearm in horizontal bands, with the subject filling the frame against a plain white sleeve and blurred background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, I've finally got round to Dad's knives. They're still in the drawer by the sink on the twenty-second floor, where the lift smells of bleach and the wind finds its way under the balcony door no matter how many towels I wedge there. Nine of them, laid out the way he always laid them on the oilcloth on a Friday, longest to shortest, handles all facing the same way, as if they were waiting to be called.

Keep reading

You'll remember the shop on Calder Road. The pig chart was pinned up beside the scales, faded to the colour of weak tea, with its pencil-thin lines showing where the chops and the hock and the belly came from. Customers used to stand and point at it like a map of their own dinners. Dad said a good butcher could tell you where every cut sat on the animal, and you were never to trust one who couldn't.

I took the chart down last week. I thought I'd do the Sunday joint myself, the way he did, pork shoulder scored and salted, a tub of mushy peas gone soft in the pan with a knob of butter. The cleaver was too heavy for me, so I put it back. The little boning knife was easier. It went through the skin like it had been waiting.

I'm sending you the chart. Frame it or bin it, your call. I've kept the longest knife, and I've started laying the rest out on the oilcloth every Friday, longest to shortest, because I can't yet bring myself to do anything else with them.

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