Black and grey realism tattoo of two dog tags hanging from a ball chain on an arm, one reading DAD and the other showing numbers, with a small blue drop below.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dog tags reading DAD on an arm

Realism · Other · Mixed · Photo

Two shaded dog tags hang from a ball chain, one stamped with the word DAD and the other with the numbers 2, 15 and 08. The tags are rendered with soft grey shading and highlights to give a metallic, raised look. A single blue-green water drop sits at the bottom left of the tags on a limb.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dad,

Keep reading

The roof over the old chapel at Carreg Castle has finally given up, so I am writing this on a fallen block with my boots in a puddle that is slowly creeping towards my notebook. Mrs Ibbotson from the village brings tea up in a flask every afternoon and pretends she is not checking on me. She says the tower is held together by ivy and spite.

I found something yesterday, under a slab in the undercroft. A tobacco tin with a rusted lid, and inside it a length of ball chain and a pair of tags stamped by someone who had clearly been taught to hit each letter square. No name, only numbers: 2, 15, 08. I have spent the evening trying to decide whether they are a date, a regiment or a joke someone made in the cold. I thought you would know. You always knew which number meant which thing.

The drip from the chapel roof has been landing on the same stone for three days, and I swear it has worn a shallow cup into it. I keep meaning to move the tin somewhere dry. I keep not doing it. It feels as if the tags were left here on purpose, the way you left the porch light on for me when I was late.

Come home when the contract ends. Bring the tags if you want them back. If not, I will keep them with the other things that do not get thrown away.

Nell

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