Black and grey lettering tattoo spelling Coexist across the upper back, with each letter replaced by a religious or science symbol.

Coexist lettering across upper back

Lettering · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The word Coexist is spelled out in bold solid black lettering, with the C as a crescent moon and star, the o as a peace sign, the e carrying the text =mc2, the x as a Star of David, the i topped by an eye, the s as a yin yang and the t as a Latin cross. The linework is crisp and heavy with solid black fill and no visible shading gradients. The photo is greyscale and centred on the upper back, with a thin chain necklace visible at the top of the frame.

Lettering Geometric Back Crescent moon Star Peace sign Eye Yin yang Cross Lettering Symbol

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The shed door was my idea, which is why Harold never let me forget it. Eleven plots on Carrmill Lane, and by April the committee had split into two camps over a compost heap that may or may not have been drawing rats. I bought a tin of black gloss at the Otley auction, borrowed a sign-writer's brush from Ruth Glass, and set about painting one word across the potting shed door, because I had seen it on a bumper sticker and thought a shed ought to say something.

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Everyone wanted a letter. Mr Anwar asked for the crescent moon for the C, and he was the one who knew everyone's dahlias by name, so I gave him his star too. Dr Pell, who taught physics at the grammar school for thirty years and still corrected my sums, insisted the e carry his equation, so I squeezed =mc2 into its belly while he read every character aloud over my shoulder. Ruth wanted the x as a Star of David for her late husband, and I did not ask further. The s became a yin yang because the Hendersons had argued over the tea urn all summer and I thought they should have to share a letter. The eye on the i was Harold's idea, and the cross on the t was the vicar's, though he never once came up the lane to see it.

By June the paint had blistered on the sunny side, and I was halfway up a ladder with a scraper when Harold came along the path with his barrow. He stood there a long time, looking at the leeks and then at the eye. Then he said it looked like it was judging the leeks, and went off to fetch a pot of his own paint.

Next morning the blisters were gone and a small peace sign had appeared in the corner where the sun never reached, painted in Harold's wobbly hand. Underneath it he had written, in capitals that ran downhill, SHARE THE TEA URN.