Close-up of a gold metallic temporary tattoo on an ankle, showing a fern sprig, the word love in script and a band of star motifs above a dotted border.

Gold leaf, script and star band on ankle

Botanical · Ankle · Colour · Photo

A close view of a bare lower leg and ankle with a gold metallic temporary tattoo. A fern-like sprig sits above a cursive word, followed by a band of star-shaped flowers between fine rings and a row of small open diamonds near the ankle. The gold linework is fine and even, set against warm brown skin, with a blurred cream textile with gold embroidery in the foreground.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, The sea has been flat for nine days, so I have had time to finish the pattern you asked for. Enclosed is the tracing on waxed paper. The fern sprig goes at the top, the way Mother's sat on the coverlet, and beneath it goes the word I could not leave out. I wrote it in your hand rather than mine, because yours loops like a pulled thread and mine looks like a fence.

Keep reading

The band of star-flowers is the hard part. Gold leaf does not forgive a wobble, so I cut each star from the same sheet and pressed it flat with the back of a spoon before the size could dry. Below them the little open diamonds run in a row, one for every port we have not stopped at. Captain Harker says we will raise Bristol by the new moon, though he said the same at Madeira.

Yesterday the cook's boy watched me work and asked why anyone would paint a bride's arm with a brush meant for lettering. I told him it was for a girl who would be married under a sky full of stars. He laughed and said stars are only holes in the dark. I did not argue. I held the paper up to the lamp and the gold caught the light so that every cut edge glittered, and for a moment the whole ship smelled of tar and sugar and nothing else.

Keep the tracing flat in the tin and away from the damp at the hinge. When you lay it on the skin, rub the leaf gently with cotton wool and it will lift clean. The pattern stays where it was put. Write to the Mariner's Rest and tell me the wedding went ahead and that the bride did not fidget. Your loving brother, Tom

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