Black fine line script tattoo reading Carpe Diem with three small bird silhouettes, placed on the upper back near the shoulder.

Carpe Diem script with birds on upper back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo reads Carpe Diem in a flowing, cursive script above three small bird silhouettes in black ink. The linework is thin and even, with the lettering slightly varied in weight. The photograph is warm-toned and close, showing the upper back and the base of the neck, with the skin's natural texture visible around the design.

Fine line Lettering Back Carpe diem Script Bird Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the ship has been rolling for nine days now and I have stopped trying to write neatly, so forgive the slant of this. Captain Raddon had the lads paint the rail again this morning, and the gulls that followed us out of Falmouth are still here, three of them, riding the wake like they've paid for the passage. Mr Lowther says they're only after the galley scraps. I told him gulls don't count scraps; they count the days the sea gives them. He laughed and said I'd been reading the wrong books again.

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You asked in your last letter whether I was sorry I signed on. I wasn't sure how to answer then, but I am sure now. The Latin is carved on the chest in the cabin the purser keeps locked, a motto from some dead poet, and every night before the watch changes I read it aloud in the dark so the mate can hear me mangle it. Carpe diem, I say, seize the day, and then I go up and seize the rope, cold and wet, and feel more alive than I did behind the counter at your father's shop for six years.

We make Valparaiso in a fortnight if the wind holds. When we do, I'll post this and buy you the blue silk you wanted, the one from the stall with the lame parrot. The birds are still here as I write, pecking at a crust by the bell. I've named them after the three of us, so you know I'm thinking of you when I look at them.

Your loving brother, Tom