Small black fine line arrow with a dotted circle behind it on the inner upper arm of a person with their arm raised.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Fine line arrow with dotted circle on upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A small arrow runs diagonally across the inner upper arm, with its shaft, fletching and arrowhead drawn in thin black linework. A ring of fine dots sits behind the middle of the arrow, and the shading is minimal. The tattoo is shown in a light, uncluttered photo against a white brick wall, with the torso partly visible at the right edge.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The galley is quiet this morning, which gives me ten minutes before the bread proves and the mess lads come stamping in asking what's for breakfast. The skipper says we'll raise the Hebrides by Thursday if the wind holds, though he said the same about Sunday. I've spent the watch pricking holes in the lid of the old biscuit tin with a sail needle, one ring of them round the middle, because Teddy Okafor bet me a tot of rum I couldn't make a circle without a compass. I won. He owes me the tot, and the tin is on the shelf where the fat collects.

While I was pricking, I thought about the arrow you drew on the back of my hand the summer before I sailed, the one you said would point me home. I've been chalking one on the bulkhead beside the stove ever since, fletched and aimed at the port side, and the second mate keeps rubbing it out with his sleeve. Yesterday the point had worn down to nothing, so I drew it fresh and gave it a tail the way you showed me, though my hand shakes more than it used to in this swell.

Last night the cook's mate asked why I bother with a picture of a thing that only ever leaves. I told him an arrow is only ever leaving, and that's the good of it. Then I put the tin lid over the gas ring to warm the kettle, and the holes caught the light in a neat ring of little stars on the ceiling.

I'll post this at Stornoway if they let us ashore. Tell Mum the needle's still in my apron pocket, and I'm keeping it sharp for the next tin.

Love, Nell

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