Black line drawing of two pairs of long-nailed hands framing a pair of eyes, one with a teardrop, in a fine line style on a pale background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hands framing two eyes with a single tear

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

Two pairs of hands with long, black-tipped nails frame a pair of eyes at the top and a third hand rests below them. The eyes are drawn with clean, even black linework and fine lashes, and the right eye has a single black teardrop. The design is in black ink only on a plain light grey background, centred and symmetrical.

Fine line Eye Hand Tear Nail

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You are on your knees under the trestle table in the Miners' Institute Hall, counting napkins, when Aunt Pat's voice cuts across the room asking who has seen the good scissors. Outside, the rain is doing its best to ruin the photographs. The photographer has been pacing the car park for twenty minutes with the face of a man who has just been told the sausage rolls are cold.

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You know exactly where the scissors are. They have been in your apron pocket since you cut the bows off the chair covers, and you could have handed them over at any point. Instead you stay put and watch your cousin Lee standing by the fire door, both palms pressed over his face so that only his fingers show, long and black-tipped like the hatpins in Nan's drawer. He thinks nobody has noticed he has been out there since the vows. Then a bead of dark mascara runs from the corner of one eye, and he wipes it away with a knuckle, the way you used to rub chalk off the back of your hand at school.

The ring bearer's cushion slides off the piano, and while the whole room turns to look, you cross the hall and hold out the scissors. Lee takes them without lifting his head. "Pat's been asking," you say. "Go on." He sniffs, straightens his tie, and walks back in with the scissors held up like a prize.

When the photographs come back a fortnight later, there is one of him at the ribbon, grinning, his face dry. You are at the edge of the frame, still holding the napkins, and you are the only one looking at the door.