Black ink tattoo of the Deathly Hallows symbol, a triangle, circle and vertical line, with script lettering along its edges on the back.

Deathly Hallows symbol with script quote on back

Lettering · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A bold black linework tattoo of the Deathly Hallows symbol, formed by a triangle, a circle and a vertical line, sits at the centre of the frame. The script text 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good' follows the two upper edges and the base of the triangle. The image uses solid black ink on lightly freckled skin with a plain, evenly lit composition.

Lettering Geometric Back Deathly hallows Triangle Circle Wand Script Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The chalk had been Dilys's idea, and so had the oath, which we recited on our knees under the bandstand of the Pavilion Ballroom at Westgate, the night the band packed up early because of the rain. She drew the triangle first, three strokes that didn't quite meet, then a circle she closed with her thumb, and last a straight line dropped through the middle like a plumb. 'Say it properly,' she said. 'Solemnly. You can't do it giggling.'

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We had both been sacked from the Saturday tea urn that summer for the same offence, which was sneaking Mr Abbot's sherry into the lemonade. Dilys said a pact needed a mark, and the mark needed a reason, and the reason was that the whole town had already decided we were trouble. So I swore it, holding my breath, and she swore it back, and the chalk squeaked on the sprung boards like a mouse under a floor.

Forty years later I went back. The Pavilion had become a bingo hall with carpet the colour of stewed tea, but someone had polished the boards in one corner, and there, under three coats of varnish, the triangle was still faintly visible, its circle worn thin where dancers' heels had scuffed it. Dilys had died in March. Her daughter had sent me a box of things, and in it was a stub of blue chalk.

I knelt the way we had and drew the line through the circle. It came out crooked, which felt right. Then I wrote the words along the edges of the triangle the way she'd taught me, small and slanting, and I was up to no good for almost a full minute before the caller on the stage asked whether I'd lost my ticket.