Pen sketch of the words Who I am today is worse than other times in mixed lettering styles, with no body part visible.

Hand-drawn lettering sketch of a quote

Lettering · Black and grey · Flash

A hand-drawn lettering sketch in black ink on white paper, photographed in an open notebook. The words read 'Who I am today... is worse than other times', each line set in a different hand-drawn style, including outlined, hatched, bold block and thin scratchy letters. The composition is top-aligned, with a dripping line beneath 'today' and a horizontal stroke through the last word.

Lettering Lettering Word Quote Sketch

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Harold Pim had been lettering boards on the seafront at Cleethorpes for thirty-one years, and he could tell a bad week from the brush strokes alone. The Sunday before, his hand had shaken on the O of OPEN, so the O came out lopsided, like a dropped biscuit. He had painted over it twice and it still showed through the white.

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The job that Monday was for Gerry Vance, who ran the amusements at the end of the pier and wanted a new sign for the dodgem track. 'Something lively,' Gerry said, tapping a cigarette against his palm. 'Not all that gloom you put on the last one.' Harold nodded and took the sketchbook from his coat. He had been working out the lettering for a fortnight: a drip line under the word today, a bold block for THAN, outlines where he wanted the eye to rest. Gerry frowned at the bottom line and asked why somebody had struck through TIMES.

'Because it's true,' Harold said, 'and because I haven't found a better word yet.'

Gerry laughed, not unkindly, and paid him in folded notes. Harold worked the hatching on the R until the light went orange over the Humber, then he stood back with the brush in his hand. The letters looked like a crowd of strangers, each shouting the same thing in a different coat. He thought his wife would have liked it. She had always said his worst work was his most honest, and he had never quite decided whether that was praise.