Black ink tattoo of the word freedom in a serif typeface with a small bird above the final letters, on the inner wrist.

Freedom lettering with bird on wrist

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo spells the word freedom in a lowercase serif typeface, with a small bird silhouette sitting above the last letters. The lettering is solid black with a slightly soft edge, and the bird is a simple, minimal shape. The ink sits centrally on a pale wrist against a dark background, with the word running horizontally across the frame.

Lettering Forearm Freedom Bird Word

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the ferry gave up its last crossing on Tuesday, so I am writing this from the back step of the boarding house in Scarborough, where the gulls have taken over the bins and the landlady has taken a dislike to me. You will laugh, but I have finally done the thing you dared me to do at Aunt Ivy's wedding. The needle man on Quay Street did it in forty minutes while I held my breath. It is only a word and one small bird, so do not fuss. He asked me what I wanted it to say and I said the first thing that came, which was the word on the poster in the old picture house, the one that had the cracked L, and he laughed and said spell it properly, love, so I did.

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Mother will have a fit when she sees it, and Father will say nothing at all, which is worse. Tell them I am well and that the wages at the cannery are fair if you do not mind the smell. I have kept enough money back for the train to Leeds, and after that I shall decide the rest as I go, which I suppose is the whole point of the word on my wrist.

The bird sits just above the last letters, where the gulls wheel over the harbour wall every evening. I thought it looked as if it had only stopped there for a moment and might lift off any second, and I found that I liked that. Write back to the Leeds address, not the house, and tell me whether the sea still goes grey at four o'clock. I will be watching for your reply on the mat with my sleeve pushed up, so you know I am not ashamed of it.

Your loving sister, Mags