Fine line outline tally marks on the inside of a wrist, beside temporary tattoo sheets showing Roman numerals and a feather.

Fine line tally marks on a wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of a small outline tally mark, made of five crossed strokes, on the inner wrist of a hand with black painted nails. Beside the wrist, two sheets of temporary tattoo designs lie on a light fabric surface, showing Roman numerals, a feather, an anchor, script lettering and a tally mark. The tattoo is drawn in thin black single-line strokes, and the image is in black and grey with a plain, neutral background.

Fine line Forearm Tally marks Roman numeral Feather Anchor Script Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tam,

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The post at the slipway is nearly full now. This morning I cut the eleventh stroke with Dad's knife, four upright and one drawn across, the way you showed me on the back of the fish crate before you went down the coast. The wood was wet and the blade kept catching, so the fifth line wandered, but I think you would have let it pass.

The clock on St Brendan's still shows its Roman numerals, and the carver gave the four a hook that Mr Lennox swears is a sailor's knot, cut in 1888 by a man who had never seen the sea. I walk past it every morning and wonder which of us is counting correctly. The ferry bell has not rung since Tuesday, though the Mairi's anchor is still in the shed where you left it, and I oil the flukes every Sunday as you asked.

On Tuesday the gulls came in behind the nets, and one dropped a black feather on the pier, wet and glossy as an ink nib. I tucked it into the split in the post, where the grain has opened. I have stopped counting the days you were late. I count the days you could still be coming, which is a different sum altogether.

If the bell goes before the tide turns, come straight down to the slipway and don't stop to be sensible about it. I will be at the post with the knife, and I will let the last stroke wander if it has to.

Your loving sister, Isla