Realistic tattoo of a man in a brimmed hat with his hands gripping dog tags on a beaded chain, shown in a close-up photograph.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hands holding dog tags under a hat

Realism · Mixed · Photo

The design shows a man wearing a brimmed hat, with his hands raised to hold a set of dog tags on a beaded chain. The face is hidden by the hat and the hands, and the figure is rendered with soft, smooth grey shading and fine detail in the fabric and skin. The dog tags are tinted in red and pink tones, which stand out against the grey shading of the rest of the image.

Realism Man Hat Hand Chain Portrait

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The tags came up the pass yesterday in a tobacco tin, wrapped in a wool sock so they wouldn't rattle, and the carrier wouldn't say who had paid for the post. I knew your hand from the stamp on the envelope, the same careless loops you use for every card since March. I have turned the tin over a dozen times. The chain is still knotted the way you tie it when you are in a hurry, and the beads have kept their dull grey shine, though the tags have gone the colour of the rust on the gate.

I did not open the tin until the kettle had boiled twice. Your name is stamped on the first tag, your number on the second, and on the third someone has scratched a small cross with a nail, which you never told me about. Mrs Ashdown from the lower farm says a cross is how the lads mark a friend, so I suppose you had one. I hung the chain on the peg by the back door where your hat used to go, and every time the wind comes down off the Gap the tags knock together like someone trying to be let in.

Father says the road will stay shut until the thaw. I told him I would walk it myself if I had to. He laughed, then stopped laughing and went out to see to the goats, and I heard him say your name to the hens, which he has never once done before.

So come home by whatever road is open. Bring the hat if you still have it. The tags can stay where they are until you can take them off yourself.

Nell