Heart-shaped tattoo in blue and black with filigree scrollwork and script lettering on the upper arm.

Filigree heart with lettering on upper arm

Lettering · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A heart shape made of ornate filigree scrollwork sits on the upper arm, with bold script lettering across its centre and a small vertical ornament below. The scrollwork and outline shade from teal-blue at the edges to near-black in the lettering. The design fills the frame on a pale skin background.

Lettering Upper arm Heart Filigree Scrollwork Lettering Ornament

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The bread has gone hard again by the time the cook's mate lifts the hatch, and you are the one who has to say so. You scrape the crust into the bin, wipe your hands on the cloth tucked in your belt, and listen to the trawler knock against the quay like a tired dog wanting the door opened.

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Your father taught you to cook for a crew before he taught you to splice rope, and he was right, because a galley is the only room on a boat where a man stops being afraid for a minute. Pan on the ring, onions going soft, the smell rising up through the grating to the wheelhouse. Pinned above the stove is the card he left you, a heart cut from a cereal packet and inked over in careful, looping letters: WE'LL BE HOME. Nobody has written anything on it but him, and the ink has gone brown at the corners.

The skipper comes down at dusk, grey to the lips, and asks for tea with too much sugar. You give it to him without a word. He looks at the card, then at you, and says the weather off Dogger is turning and the boys are asleep on their feet. You tell him the stew is on and the bread is fresh enough.

They come up the river on the evening tide, lamps swinging, and you count them over the rail the way your father counted. Seven. Seven. Seven. When the last boot hits the planks you take the card down, fold it once, and slide it into your pocket, where it can wait for the next boat out.