Black and white photo of a fine line tattoo of cascading star outlines running from behind the ear down the side of the neck.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Cascading star outlines behind the ear

Fine line · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A side view of a person's head and neck shows a cascade of small star outlines running from behind the ear down towards the neck. The stars are drawn in thin, dark, solid linework with no shading, and they vary in size, with the largest near the base. The black and white photograph uses soft lighting and a plain background, with the hair pulled back to leave the tattoo clearly visible.

Fine line Neck Star Ear Neck

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the stove has been cold since Tuesday, so I am writing by the lamp I hooked over the pantry shelf while the Hebrides rock the cutlery in its rack. Cook says I can have the galley to myself once the potatoes are peeled, which is the closest thing to a holiday a deckhand's brother can expect.

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Tomas, the galley boy, has been drawing on the chopping board. He dusts it with flour each night and sketches with the blunt end of a skewer. Last night it was stars, seven of them, running down from the top corner in a loose string, the biggest at the bottom where the flour lay thickest. He said it was how the sky looks when you have kept watch too long and your eyes stop trusting the top of it, so you have to trust the ones nearest the horizon instead.

I laughed at him, and then I didn't, because Mackie came down for his tea just as the compass lamp on the bridge went out and we heard the mate swearing up the stairwell. Mackie never swore. He stood at the porthole, counted the stars through the glass with one finger, and said the north one was still there, which meant we were still ourselves, whatever the instruments said.

We made Stornoway by morning. Tomas wiped the board clean with his sleeve before breakfast, but I saw the smudge where the biggest star had been, and I have left it there. Tell Mum I'm eating properly. Your loving brother, Davy.