Black and grey realism tattoo across a man's upper back showing a falcon-headed figure and a jackal-headed figure flanking an ankh and an eye of Horus, set against cracked stone.

Egyptian deities, ankh and eye of Horus on a back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The design shows a falcon-headed figure on the left and a jackal-headed figure on the right, both holding crossed staffs above a central ankh. Below the ankh sits an eye of Horus, with hieroglyphs running down the outer edges and cracked stone framing the whole piece. The work uses smooth, detailed shading in black and grey, with strong highlights on the figures and a soft, dark background.

Realism Back Ankh Eye of horus Egyptian Deity

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The stone gateway cracked on the third bend, a hairline that ran straight through the falcon's shoulder. Uncle Nasser swore at it in three dialects, then sat down in the sand as if the road owed him an apology. I was seventeen and had been told to keep my mouth shut, so I walked to the edge of the tarmac and looked at the dunes instead.

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Out there the wind had been working on old rock for longer than anyone had bothered to count. Along the ridge stood squat pillars with signs cut down their faces: a bird-headed man and a jackal-headed man, both lifting staffs toward something the wind had already taken. Nasser had copied those figures for thirty years for hotel lobbies and wealthy men's garden walls. 'They don't guard anything any more,' he said, dusting his hands. 'They just hold up the sky for tourists.'

That evening we mended the crack with resin and a pinch of ochre grit. Nasser pressed his thumb against the join, then, without looking at me, drew a small ankh in the dust on the lorry's bonnet with a broken matchstick. Before the sun went down I asked him why the eye always sat beneath the cross. He said an eye keeps watch, and a cross keeps the eye honest. Then he carried the gateway to the back of the lorry and slept beside it, one hand resting on the stone.

Morning showed the join had held, though a pale line still shone through the rock like a river on a map. We drove on with the gateway roped down, and when the road turned north I saw the dunes had already begun to bury the ridge behind us.