Fine line black tattoo of four stick figures holding hands in a row on the side of a ribcage, just below a dark bra band.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Four stick figures holding hands on the ribs

Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A row of four simple stick figures with round heads and single-line limbs is drawn in black ink on the side of the ribs. The figures hold hands in a line, with the outer two arms reaching toward the centre. The skin is pale and softly lit against a plain background, with the dark edge of a bra visible above the tattoo.

Fine line Ribs Stick figure Holding hands Line drawing

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The ward goes quiet after the two o'clock obs, and you do the rounds with the torch turned low so the sleepers keep sleeping. Above bed nine someone has taped a drawing, the Sellotape gone yellow at the corners. Four stick people in black felt pen, round heads, single lines for arms, joined hand to hand as if they are waiting for a bus. The tallest has a skirt drawn as a triangle. The smallest has three hairs standing up like a fork.

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Mr Okafor is not asleep. He watches you read his chart with the look of a man who has been waiting all night to be asked something. "My granddaughter drew that," he says. "She told me there are four of us. I said there are three, because her mum is still on the motorway. She said Nana counts too, so I am one of the four, and the fourth is her mum, who is coming."

You tell him the bloods look better, which is true, and that the physio will be round at nine, which you have not checked. You take his pulse against the second hand and it comes out steady, and you find yourself not quite ready to let go of his wrist.

At six the day shift arrives with wet coats and takeaway coffee. You hand over the notes and say nothing about the drawing. Then you stand a moment beside bed nine and press the loose corner of the tape back down, so the four of them stay in their row, holding on.