Black fine line fern frond tattoo running from the wrist up the inner forearm, with the hand visible below.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Fern frond tattoo on a wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A single fern frond is tattooed in black ink, starting at the wrist and curving up the inner forearm. The fine, branching linework builds up delicate leaflets along the stem, with some areas shaded more densely than others. The pale skin and plain light grey background keep the focus on the botanical design.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The hake came in thin this week, so Dad has been mending nets in the shed until his fingers bleed, and I have been sent to the harbour wall with a bucket for the limpets. There is a crack in the wall below the chandler's where a fern has got a grip. Mrs Pascoe says it is hart's-tongue, but the frond I took with me is nothing like hart's-tongue, all feathered out in tiny leaflets that fold up when you touch them. I pressed it in the family Bible between Ruth and Esther, which Dad will not forgive.

Fishing is a long way from Iceland as far as I can tell from the wireless. Mr Hosking's boy says the Lydia is due back by the spring tide, and that the cod are running thick off the banks, so you will have your share, if you are not too proud to bring it home. I keep thinking of the way the frond branched from one stem, each leaf split again and again until it was nothing but thread. You said once that the sea does the same thing to a man, that it takes you apart one small piece at a time.

Do not say that in your next letter. I would rather you wrote about the weather.

The fern has put out two new fronds since you left, curled like the handle of a teapot. I checked this morning before the tide. If the wind goes round to the east and the boats come home, I will bring you one, pressed flat, so you can see how the leaves go down to the very end.

Yours, Kit

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