Black and grey photo of a solid blackwork tattoo of six footprints in a diagonal trail on the inner forearm near the wrist.

Footprint trail on an inner forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Six solid black shoe-sole footprints run in a diagonal trail across the inner forearm, alternating left and right as they move up towards the elbow. The shapes are filled with flat black ink with crisp edges and no shading or interior detail. The photograph is taken in black and white against a dark background, with the forearm and wrist filling most of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Mr Pryce,

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I am writing about the stairwell in Hollins House, my third letter this year, though I expect you have filed the others under the bin. The lift has been out since August. Someone has been walking up the eighth floor landing in the fresh grey paint you put down in June, and every print is perfect: a work boot, the tread as clear as a stamp, one foot then the other, climbing towards the roof door.

I didn't mind at first. The paint was ruined anyway, and I liked the rhythm of them, left, right, left, the way my Stan used to take the stairs two at a time to catch the bus, then wait at the top for me to catch up. He died in March. Since then I had kept my own shoes by the front door, not wanting to tread on anything of his.

Last Tuesday I went up with a torch and a tin of white emulsion, meaning to paint them out. The prints ran past the roof door and stopped at the window on the landing, the one that looks down over the canal. There was nothing there but a cold draught and a crisp packet. Then I noticed the last print was turned to face the glass, heel to the sill, as if whoever made it had stood there a long while looking out.

I left them alone. Could you send someone to fix the lift, though, before my hip gives up on the stairs altogether. Yours sincerely, Maureen Doyle, flat 8C.

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