Black and white photo of a black script tattoo reading La vie est belle across the ribs of a bare side torso, in a lettering style.

French script quote on the ribs

Lettering · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of a bare side torso with a cursive script tattoo across the ribs, reading La vie est belle. The lettering is drawn in a fine, flowing black line with some soft shading, and the tattoo sits slightly below a pulled up shirt. A camera lens is visible at the left edge, and the frame is tightly cropped to the skin.

Lettering Ribs Script Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The order came in on a Tuesday, scrawled on the back of a bus ticket, and it was the worst handwriting I had ever been asked to copy. Eddie Marchetti wanted words painted across the top of his son's order of service, and the bride, Zofia, had sent a photograph of the phrase she liked: Ever After, in a looping hand she'd found on a tea towel. I had the brushes out before I'd finished reading.

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On the Friday Eddie came into the shop on Harbour Street with his cap in his hands and asked me to change it. He smoothed a folded page on the counter. It was in biro, in capitals that had pressed through to the back: LA VIE EST BELLE. 'My Rosa used to say it,' he said. 'Every time the kettle boiled, every time the bus was late. Put that at the top, love. The kids won't mind.' I told him the accents would need care. He said Rosa never bothered with accents either.

I wrote it out nine times before I was satisfied. The line had to be fine, almost a thread, because the booklet would be folded and the ink would blur at the crease. On the morning of the wedding Zofia rang me from the church car park, half laughing and half cross, and asked whether I'd gone mad. Then she said, 'Read it out, the bit at the top.' I did. There was a long pause, and then she said, 'Right. Leave it.'

Afterwards I found a copy on the hall table, the ink still crisp, one corner bent where someone had carried it in a pocket. Underneath, in pencil, somebody had written a single word I couldn't quite make out, and I decided it was yes.