Close-up of a black fine line outline tattoo of an elephant on a snake-like coil across the inner forearm, with a hand holding a lit cigarette.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Elephant and snake outline on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A single-line outline tattoo of an elephant sits on a long, thin coil that stretches across the forearm, with the elephant's head raised at the top. The linework is thin and even in dark ink, with no shading or fill. The pale skin and soft, slightly blurred background keep attention on the tattoo, while a hand holding a lit cigarette with rising smoke sits at the lower left of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Auntie Nell,

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The grown-ups laughed at my drawing again this morning, so I have stopped showing it to them. Mr Pennock at the schoolroom said it was a hat. Mrs Abernethy said a snake could not swallow an elephant, not in the sea off Sennen, not anywhere, and then she made me stand by the window for the whole of geography. But I know what I saw. The snake came up out of the cove after the storm, as long as the harbour wall, and it had an elephant inside it, lying very still, one ear folded over like a letter.

I drew it with one line, the way you showed me to draw the boats, so I would never have to lift the pen. I did not take it off the paper once. The line runs from the snake's tail round the whole of the elephant and comes back to the head, and the head is held up at the top, looking at nothing, as if it had just been told a secret it did not like.

Papa says it is only a picture and I should not fret. But last night the lamp smoked and I sat with my elbow on the sill, and I thought about how nobody ever asks what happens to the elephant. Everyone wants to know about the snake. I have decided the elephant should be the one in the book. I am keeping the drawing under my mattress with your postcard, so it will be safe until you come back on the Thursday boat.

Your loving niece, Mary

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