Black handwritten script tattoo reading "You are what you love, not who loves you" across the upper chest, with a silver chain and grey top in view.

Handwritten quote across upper chest

Lettering · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

A black handwritten script quote reads "You are what you love, not who loves you." across two lines on the upper chest near the collarbone. The lettering uses an even, medium-thin black line with no shading, and the letters slope and join in a loose cursive hand. The image is black and grey, with a silver necklace and a grey top visible at the edges of the frame.

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

Your mother has stopped asking when you're coming home, which is how I know she has given up on you the proper way, with a cup of tea going cold beside her. The Constant Mary came in on Tuesday four crates short and the skipper's face like a shut door, and Jimmy Doyle says you gave your whole share to the Lerwick girl's brother for a ring that fitted nobody. I'm not writing to scold. I buried a husband who loved the sea more than he loved me, and I was a fool about it for thirty years before I saw it plain.

Mrs Gillies at the chandlery has a card pinned behind her till with a line on it in her careful hand. I copied it out on the back of this page so you'd have it where you can read it at sea: you are what you love, not who loves you. It sounds like something off a calendar. It isn't. It's a sum you can work out yourself with the tide tables and a stub of pencil, and I'd like you to do it before the next landing, not after.

The girl has her own boats and her own brother to be proud of. Come in on the morning tide, eat something that hasn't been pickled, and sleep in your own bed for once. Bring nothing back from Shetland except yourself and the knife your grandfather left you, which you pawned in a fit of feeling in March and which I redeemed for eleven pounds out of my own purse.

Your loving aunt, Morag

P.S. The mackerel have come in close to the harbour wall. Keep your oilskins on.

More like this

Black fine line script lettering reading a quote sits across the upper chest near the collarbone, beside a grey top and a pendant necklace.
Script quote on the upper chest
Fine line black script reading Take these broken wings and learn to fly, curving down the ribs beside a small bird silhouette.
Script quote and bird on ribs
Close photo of a fine line script tattoo reading je ne regrette rien in black ink on the inner forearm, against a dark background.
Fine line script reading je ne regrette rien on a forearm
Black and grey fine line script reading Love me for who I am, tattooed along the top of a shoulder near the collarbone.
Script quote along the shoulder
Fine line black lettering tattoo forming a heart outline on the inner forearm, with the words set along the curve of the heart.
Heart outline of lettering on a forearm
Black script tattoo reading "Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live" across a forearm, in a black and white photo.
Script quote on a forearm
Black script lettering tattoo reading every day is the start of something beautiful across the upper chest, near the collarbone, with a grey patterned fleece worn open.
Script quote across the upper chest
Black fine-line script tattoo reading 'To live in the hearts you leave behind is not to die' running across a shoulder, with a small outlined heart at the end.
Script quote across the shoulder
Close-up of a fine line black script tattoo reading I've waited here for you everlong, placed across the upper back near the shoulder.
Script quote across the shoulder blade
Black script tattoo reading what matters most is how well you walk through the fire, with a peace symbol at the wrist end, on a forearm.
Script quote and peace symbol on a forearm
Fine line black script tattoo reading There is no love without forgiveness, running vertically along the side of a bare back and ribs.
Fine line script quote along the back
Close-up of a fine line black script quote running diagonally across a fair-skinned forearm, with a ring visible on the hand below.
Script quote along a forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.