Fine line black tattoo of a cross with the word Redeemed in cursive script running down the upright stroke, on a forearm.

Cross with script word Redeemed on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A thin black cross sits on the forearm, with the word Redeemed written in cursive script running diagonally down its upright stroke. The linework is delicate and even, with no shading, in black ink on darker skin. A gloved hand and a jeans leg appear at the edges of the frame.

Fine line Lettering Forearm Cross Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The rain had found its way under the awning by eleven, so I worked with my brushes wrapped in a carrier bag and my sleeve shoved up past the elbow. Dolan Pryce wanted his shop sign done before the Saturday crowds came through the market, and he wanted it in the old copperplate his father had used. I told him a sign painter's hand was a thing you either kept or lost to the gin. He laughed and said he'd take his chances.

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I began with the cross, a single stroke for the upright and a crossbar ruled off so straight the rain couldn't blur it. Then the word. I ran it slantwise down the stem, letters leaning like people walking into weather, and every time the bristles dragged I heard my mother's voice from the kitchen table, correcting my loops with a stubby pencil. She used to say a line you couldn't take back was the only honest kind of line, and she had no patience for rubbing out.

A woman stopped under the awning with a wet pram and a watch in a plastic bag. She read the word twice, lips moving, then asked Dolan what it meant. He shrugged over the counter. "Means bought back," he said. "Pawned things come here to be redeemed. Pay what's owed and it's yours again." She looked at the watch in her palm and didn't say anything for a while.

When I finished the last e the rain eased off, and I stepped back onto the cobbles to look. From the pavement the word read true. In the shop window behind it, the letters ran backwards, a mirror of the same promise, and I thought that was probably the most honest thing about the whole sign.