Black and grey lettering tattoo on the forearm arranged in a circle, reading a quote about imagination and a canvas, with a small plus sign.

Circular quote tattoo on the forearm

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey photograph of a forearm with a circular block of capitalised sans serif lettering. The words run around the circle and read "THIS WORLD IS BUT A CANVAS TO OUR IMAGINATION", separated by a small plus sign. The clean, even linework and solid black ink sit against pale skin, and the photo is taken from above with the circle centred on the arm.

Lettering Geometric Forearm Quote Circle Text

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The chalk circle is still on the back wall of the kitchen garden, where you left it. I haven't rubbed it out. Mr Okafor next door thinks I've gone soft, but a ring drawn freehand that true is worth keeping for a week or two. Your grandad could do one with a nail and a length of string, and I never once saw him measure.

Your letter asked how I managed the lettering when the bricks kept curving under the brush. The trick was never the paint. I cut every letter from brown paper, laid them out on the flagstones, then knelt and walked round the circle until the spacing sat right. Capitals only, because capitals don't argue with a curve. The plus sign went in last, a small thing in the gap where the sentence turns over, and it's the bit people always ask about.

The garden was a mess when the Ashworths bought the cottage, all nettles and a dead apple tree. Mrs Ashworth wanted something to look at while she pegged out the sheets, so I gave her a line I'd copied out of a library book about the world being a canvas for the imagination. She cried a little, which I wasn't expecting. Then she asked me to paint a second wall with nothing on it at all.

Keep your hands steady and your string tight. The blank wall is the harder job, love. Write when you've finished the bakery sign and tell me whether the plus sign came out straight.

Nan