Four small red, orange and black koi fish tattoos on the back of a hand, which pinches a brass lantern charm.

Four koi fish tattoos on the back of a hand

Japanese · Hand · Mixed · Photo

Four small koi fish swim across the back of a pale hand, one arcing towards the knuckles and the others angled diagonally down towards the wrist. The fish have simple outlines and patchy red, orange and black fills, with a soft, slightly blurred finish. The plain white background keeps attention on the hand, which holds a small brass lantern charm.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Edie, the lodger in the back room at number six has gone, and he left his lantern on the sill with a note pinned to it. The note says it is for whoever next minds the harbour light, and that the fish are to be let go in spring. I did not know what he meant until I went out to the yard this morning and found the tin bath empty.

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He had kept four koi in it all winter, orange and red and one with a black smudge like a thumbprint on wet paper. He fed them crumbs from the breakfast table and talked to them as if they were paying guests. Last week the frost came down hard and the surface went to glass, and I thought we had lost them. But the bath was empty, not cracked, and the drain grate by the wall had been lifted out and set neatly on the cobbles. Mr Pryce from the chandlery swears he saw four small flashes go under the harbour wall on the ebb, though he had been drinking and I told him so.

I lit the lantern tonight and set it in the front window, where the glass is thin enough to let the light through. The brass cage throws a pattern of little bars across the floor, and I sat watching them move as the draught came under the door. It is silly, I know. Still, I left the window unlatched, in case anyone out there was looking for the way back in.

Your loving sister, Winnie

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