Black and grey butterflies, swirling vines and small stars tattooed on an ankle and the top of a foot, with the name Sara in script at the bottom.

Butterflies and vines on an ankle

Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A woman's ankle and foot show a tattoo of three butterflies linked by curling vine lines, with small star shapes scattered along the design. The butterflies have solid black outlines with grey shading on the larger one, while the vines are drawn in fine, even black lines. The design runs from the ankle down over the top of the foot, with the name Sara in script near the toes, shown against a blue surface.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mum, you won't believe what came aboard off Peterhead on Tuesday. Three butterflies, blown out to sea from somewhere inland and far too worn out to head back. The skipper wanted them over the side with the gutted haddock, but Ruth from the galley put a saucer of sugar water on the wheelhouse step and they've been living on it since. One has a dark eye on its wing like a peacock feather. The other two keep to the trawl warp, climbing it in slow spirals as if they're reading the rope.

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I spent the afternoon with the net across my knees, mending the tear where the ground rope caught the wreck. Every knot I tied made me think of the vines you used to draw on my school jotters, those fine black curls that never quite close. The salt dried on the twine in little white stars, and when the sun came out they flashed the way the sea does. Dad would have laughed at me for stopping to look up.

We hauled the last tow in the grey dark, and the butterflies stayed put through the whole rattle of the winch. When the engine cut and we tied up, the three of them lifted together, circled the mast once, and went off over the fish market roofs towards the hills I can just make out from here.

I've kept the saucer. It's on the sill by my bunk with a little water in it, in case the next ones are as stubborn as these. Write back and tell me what the garden's doing. Tell me if the buddleia came out. Love, Jamie.

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