Black and grey fine line tattoo of a geometric dress form on a stand, on the inner upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Geometric dress form on an upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo of a tailor's dress form on a stand, drawn as a outline with a triangular lattice across the bodice and waist. A single thin line runs down from the form to a scrolled base at the bottom. The image is a black and white photograph taken close up, with the tattoo centred against bare skin and a blurred background.

Fine line Geometric Upper arm Lattice

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ilse,

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They took the stand off the lorry at the Brenner and I was sure they would keep it, the way they keep anything that looks like it might be hiding something. A man in a grey coat turned the wooden form over in his hands, pressed the bodice with his thumbs as though he expected a letter folded inside, then asked what a body needed with a wire base. I told him the truth: nothing. It is only a shape to pin cloth to. He wrote that down. I do not think he understood that the lattice across the bodice is how I measure a hem without a tape, that every diamond is a dart I have sewn ten thousand times in my head.

Mother's form came with us in the end. It is the one with the dented shoulder, the one she stood before every Sunday to fit the church linen. The scrolled foot still wobbles when you lean on it, and I have stopped trying to fix it.

When you come to Lindau in spring, bring the blue wool. I have cut the pattern already, the grid pencilled onto brown card so the lines will not curl. Pin the shoulders where the wire arms used to be, and we will see whether the seams agree with each other.

Your sister, Marta