Black ink tattoo of a Chi Rho symbol with alpha and omega letters inside a laurel wreath on the forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Chi Rho with alpha and omega in a laurel wreath

Botanical · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A Chi Rho monogram sits at the centre of the design, flanked by the Greek letters alpha and omega. A ring of laurel leaves with stems curls around the symbol, and the leaves are shaded with lighter grey tones. The solid black linework is bold and even, and the photograph is taken straight on against a plain background.

Botanical Forearm Laurel wreath Leaves Monogram

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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We struck the big top in Thetford on Tuesday, the last of it, and I am writing this on the back of a spare handbill because the good paper ran out before the wagons did. Old Mr Varley stood in the sawdust with his hat in his hands while the boys folded the canvas, and he would not let anyone touch the banner that hangs over the centre pole. You'll remember it: the faded one with the black cross at its heart, the great curling letters on either side, and the wreath of leaves round the lot. He had it stitched in Bristol the year we bought the Ferris wheel. He says the laurels were for the ringmaster before him, a man with a voice like a church bell who never once missed a cue.

The lion died in March, and the elephant went to a farm near Ely with a man who promised her a pond. Varley sold the horses in April and kept only the banner, the trunk of tickets and a sack of old playbills he won't let me burn. Last night, by the paraffin lamp in the cookhouse, he asked me to take the banner home with me. I said I had no wall big enough, and he laughed and said it was only ever meant to be carried.

So I have it folded in the bottom of my case. This morning, before the train, I unpicked one corner just to see how the stitching had held. The Omega had come loose from its thread years ago and was hanging by a single strand, and I found myself quite unable to snip it off. I've left it dangling. Come and see it when you're next up from the coast.

Your brother, Tom