Crossed arrows and rose on the ribs
Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo
A black and white photograph of a tattoo on the side of a torso, showing two crossed arrows with a central rose, small five-petal flowers and leaves. The linework is fine and delicate, with stippled shading on the petals and arrowheads. The design is centred on the ribs against plain skin, with a dark top and a hand at the lower edge of the frame.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Dear Tom, the frost has got into the pump again, so I am writing this by the range with the kettle going every few minutes. Your father's fletching bench is still under the dust sheet in the barn. I went out this morning looking for the goose feathers he kept in the biscuit tin, and there were only eleven left, all grey at the tips.
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The rose he carved over the barn door the year we married has gone soft with lichen. Mrs Pargeter from the next farm came over with a sack of swedes and asked whether we meant to sell the longbow. I told her no. The bow is yours if you want it, and the arrows are for whoever has the nerve to loose them. Your father always said a crossed pair kept the wind honest.
I have been practising in the paddock with the old bow. Two hits out of six at the hay bale, which is more than Ned Harrow managed at the fair. The stubble is white with frost and the rooks won't leave the elms, and I stand there in your father's coat squinting down the shaft like a fool.
I enclose the last two arrows he finished, flights cut from the grey goose. Keep them dry. When the thaw comes, bring the boy and we will walk up to the ridge and shoot them towards the church spire, and see whose lands nearer the rose. Your loving mother, Ada.
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