Black solid tattoo of a Chicago skyline silhouette above four stars and a bar, on the inner upper arm of a woman with her arm raised.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Chicago skyline and stars on upper arm

Blackwork · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A solid black silhouette of a city skyline with a tall tower in the centre sits above a row of four five-point stars and a thick horizontal bar. The linework is bold and filled, with no visible shading or grey tones. The tattoo is shown on the inner upper arm against a light tiled background, with the woman's face turned away from the camera.

Blackwork Upper arm Skyline City Star Bar Silhouette

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The ice had been grinding along the Harriet Lund's hull since Muskegon, and by the third night of February the whole ship groaned like an old dog that wanted to be let inside. Cook said the lake was only clearing its throat. I held the four-to-eight watch on the bridge with a tin mug of coffee going cold between my gloves, squinting for the breakwater light that would tell us the harbour was close.

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It came up out of the dark a little after two: first the blink of the pier lamps, then the black teeth of the skyline standing against a sky the colour of wet slate. The tallest tower stood in the middle with its red warning lights ticking slow, a dark spike every deckhand on the lakes could find blindfold. Captain Okafor, who had never once in eleven seasons raised his voice, leaned over my shoulder and tapped the glass. "There's the bar on the elevator, Tomas. Four stars under it. Means we're home."

He was right about the flag, though I never did learn who first hung that design on the grain elevator or why the stars sat so neatly in a row. My father used to carry a folded copy of it in his truck, and I think it was the only thing he ever cared to keep dry.

We tied up at six with the ice cracking off the lines. Nobody was waiting on the pier. I folded my wages into my jacket, looked once more at the silhouette going pale in the morning, and went below to sleep while the ship finally stopped moving under me.