Black handwritten lettering design reading filled it up with novocaine and now I'm just numb, set between two horizontal rules on a white background, in a lettering style with no body placement shown.

Handwritten lettering quote on white

Lettering · Black and grey · Flash

The image shows a hand-lettered quote in black ink on a plain white background. The words are set in mixed case and capitals, with a looping script line for the word novocaine, and are framed above and below by thin horizontal rules. The design is entirely black linework with no shading or colour, and the text is centred with generous white space around it.

Lettering Quote Text Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mr Pargeter came in at quarter past eight on a Tuesday with a molar that had been trying to kill him since Easter. I handed him the paper bib and watched him fold it wrong, the way people do when they're trying not to look scared. Dr Okonedo was running late from the other branch, so it was me who sat by the chair, held the little steel dish and talked about the weather, because somebody has to.

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When the doctor finally arrived she didn't say much. She checked the cartridge, told him the gum would go soft and heavy, then the lip, then the whole left side of his face would feel borrowed. He laughed at that. People laugh before the injection and go quiet after it, and I've watched that switch flip in hundreds of faces. Pargeter kept touching his cheek with two fingers, as though checking it was still attached.

Afterwards I wiped the tray and thought about my own kitchen, the hob I'd probably left on and the council letter on the mat. Nothing hurt, and that was the trouble. For three weeks I'd filled every gap with rotas and sandwiches and phone calls, and I'd stopped feeling the edges of anything. I had gone properly numb, the way you do after being brave for too long.

At half five the clinic was empty except for Pargeter, waiting for his face to come back. He stood at the desk with his coat half on and said, very carefully, "I can't tell if I'm smiling." I told him he looked like a man who'd just had good news. He nodded, and I could see he was grateful for the lie, and so was I. Then I locked up and walked home the long way, feeling the cold on my face properly for the first time in weeks.