Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Full sleeves and leg tattoos on a seated man

Traditional · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A seated man with his arms wrapped around his knees shows full sleeve tattoos on both arms, including a koi-like scale pattern, a flame, roses and a bird or owl figure. On his lower legs are a black-and-grey rose, a bearded figure and a red-and-black female profile wearing a feathered headdress. The bold outlines and solid colour fills are set against grey steps and a dark top, with red and orange ink standing out against the greys and blacks.

Traditional Forearm Upper arm Calf Rose Flame Koi Bird Owl Feather Sleeve

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The galley fire went out twice last week in the bad weather off Finisterre, and both times Cook Abernethy swore it was the sea's fault and not his own. I have been keeping the range going since, mostly by sitting on the coal scuttle and talking to it. Don't laugh. The stove answers better than the bosun does.

There is an owl on the night watch now, which I did not expect. Nobody aboard has seen it come in over the rail, but every night at two bells it sits on the lamp hook above the bread trough and turns its head as if it is counting the loaves. Abernethy says it is a Tuesday owl and will vanish when we make port. He also says the orange koi in the water barrel by the scullery door has been sulking since we left Cardiff, which I think is nonsense, though it does hang very still whenever the pot boils over.

The turn came on Thursday. The flames in the firebox climbed up the chimney in the shape of a woman's head with a feathered crown, the owl went quiet, and the fish in the barrel rose to the surface all at once, bright as coins. I stood with the ladle and waited for something to happen. Nothing did, except the bread caught and the cook laughed until he wept.

I have decided the fire is only fire. I have also decided to keep the barrel full. Write back and tell me the chapel roof held in the gale. I'll bring you a shell from Lisbon if the owl lets me.

Yours, Tom