Fine line black tattoo of two hands gripping a rectangular object, placed on the inner upper arm.

Hands holding a rectangular object on the arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A single continuous outline shows two hands with long nails gripping a rectangular object, drawn without shading. The linework is thin and even, and the design sits on pale skin against a dark sleeve and a grey wall. The image is a close, straight-on photograph with the tattoo centred on the arm.

Fine line Upper arm Hand Outline Nail

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The snow had sealed the Halse Inn off from the road since Tuesday, and Mrs Dunning had given up on the post. I was the only one who still went down to the hall each evening to see whether the coach lamps had come back up the valley. That night I found an envelope tucked under the register, addressed in my brother's careless capitals, and I stood there holding it the way you hold something that might still be warm.

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Nobody had asked me to take it to the fire. Ada, the cook, said it was none of my business, then asked me to read it aloud anyway, because her daughter lived in Carlisle and her hands were full of flour. I told her the flap had already been opened and pressed shut again with a thumb. She said that was the postmistress's habit and nothing to do with us.

I didn't read it. I kept it between both palms, the way my mother used to hold the hymnal on frosty mornings, and waited for the boards to stop creaking. Beyond the window the lane had vanished under white, and somewhere past it the bell at Scarth was ringing for a funeral nobody could walk to.

In the morning the snowplough came grinding up the hill with its orange light turning. I flagged the driver down and pressed the envelope into his gloved hand. He looked at the address, then at me, and asked if it was urgent. I said it had waited long enough to be thought of as urgent, and watched him tuck it inside his coat as if it were the only dry thing for miles.