Black and grey realism tattoo of a curling wave with spray and clouds on the inner forearm, resting on a black leather surface.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Curling wave on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A forearm carries a large tattoo of a curling wave, its crest and tube rendered with fine white highlights and soft grey shading. Dark, cloudy sky tones surround the wave, fading into pale skin at the edges. The arm rests on a black leather surface, and the photo is taken at a slight angle from above.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

The last train from Harwick was cancelled again, so I am writing this on the bench outside the ticket office with the paper tilted to catch the light. The porter, Mr Abney, says the line will stay shut until the spring tides drop, which means another night at the Cliff Hotel and the same boiled mutton you swore you would never touch.

Yesterday, before the rain came in, I walked down to the breakwater. The sea was running hard off the point, long grey ridges marching in from the north. One of them stood up at the end of the wall and kept standing, curling over on itself like a page being turned, and the light came through the lip of it so the crest went white and bright as a sheet of tin. A fisherman beside me said it was a bad sea for boats and a fine one for looking at, and I thought of you saying the same thing about your bicycle.

The spray came over the wall in a sheet and soaked me to the knees, which I suppose serves me right for standing so close. I can still see the shape of that wave as clearly as anything I have looked at in months. Mr Abney says the timetable will change on Monday, so I have asked him to hold my ticket.

Come and fetch me if the line opens before I write again. Bring the blue scarf, and do not let your mother pack the biscuit tin without checking the lid.

Yours, Ruth

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