Black fine line chain with looping script wording running down the side of a shirtless man's ribs.

Chain and script down the side ribs

Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A shirtless man's side torso shows a thin black tattoo of a chain that loops at the top and winds down towards the hip, with small script words set along the links. The linework is fine and even, with no shading or colour, and the skin is sunlit against a blurred background. The tattoo fills the left-hand side of the frame and runs diagonally from under the arm to the waistband.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The ferry chain has been rattling since the morning boat, and you are the only one on Skerra Vaul who hears the fault in it. Mrs Orr at the pier says it is the wind working the winch. You know better. A link near the top of the loop has started to ring flat, the way a bell does when its clapper has worn thin, and every time the ramp drops the sound travels down the whole length of iron to the hook.

Keep reading

You climb the slipway with a torch wedged in your collar and a bag of new links from the chandlery in Brough. Your grandfather punched a word into every link of the old chain before he went out for the last time, a small stamp set by hand: slack, turn, hold, weather. You have spent thirty winters reading them with your thumb in the dark. The bad link is the one that said hold, and when you cut it free the chain slides loose across your palm like something that has been waiting to be let go.

Working by torchlight, you thread the replacement through and close it with the mallet. The ring goes quiet at once, and the ramp comes down with no complaint at all. Later, sweeping the shed, you find the spare length you meant to scrap, coiled behind the drums, and you turn it over under the bulb. Read from the other end, the words run in the right order at last, and the final link, the one you never could make out, says home.

You hang it on the nail by the door with the loop facing the water, where the first boat will see it come in.

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