Black and grey fine line crescent moon and a sun with rays tattooed on the side of the ribs, photographed in black and white.

Crescent moon and sun on the ribs

Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of two small tattoos on the side of a torso: a thin outlined crescent moon on the left and a sun with a ring of pointed rays on the right. The linework is fine and even, with light shading inside the sun's rays and a plain, unshaded moon. The soft, neutral background and the striped garment at the bottom edge keep the focus on the two motifs.

Fine line Ribs Moon Crescent moon Sun Celestial

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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You will think I have gone soft, but I have started counting the hours by the sky again. Down the Ashgrove drift there is no sun and no moon, only the lamp on my cap and the drip from the roof. Mr Probert on the night shift says a man forgets what colour the morning is after a month of nights, and he is right. Yesterday I came up at half past four and the sky over the pit heads was the colour of weak tea, and I stood there like a fool until the cage man shouted at me.

Grandad used to say the sun was the miners' true boss, because it decided when we went down and when we came up, and the moon was for the ones who had nothing better to do than watch. I never understood him until I was sixteen and sent below. Now I think he meant the two of them keep you honest. One tells you the day is real, and the other tells you the dark has an end too, only later.

I am sending you the drawing I did on the back of a shift ticket, the one I promised you. I have made it a bit neater than the real thing. The sun has its rays all the way round, like the spokes on Mam's old pram wheels, and the moon I have left empty, because the moon never had anything of its own. It only ever borrowed. You can tell Dad I said so.

Come up for the Feast in June if the trains run. Bring the blue cup, and I will show you where I scratched our initials under the old bridge. Your loving brother, Tom.