Black fine line script reading I hope you think of me across the side of the ribs, with a grey jumper partly covering the skin above it.

Handwritten quote along the ribs

Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A thin black cursive phrase reads I hope you think of me, running horizontally across the side of the torso. The linework is fine and even, with the letters joined by delicate strokes and a slight variation in height. The ink is solid black on pale skin, and the soft grey fabric at the top and left of the frame sits outside the tattoo.

Fine line Lettering Ribs Quote Script Handwriting Text

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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

The courier will take eleven days to reach you, if the river holds and the mules do not go lame on the Stanegate, so you should expect this tablet to arrive smelling of horse and damp wool. Lift it carefully. The wax on the left edge has already cracked where the cord rubbed it in my satchel, and I pressed the stylus too hard on the last line because my hand was cold and the orderly had let the brazier go out.

Keep reading

I cannot tell you where I am sleeping. The centurion has moved us twice since the autumn, and each time I have been given a new bench and a new draught that smokes under the door. Your brother's letter said the harvest in Eboracum was poor, so do not sell the spare loom to pay the miller. Keep the two good hens. Give the bread to the boy who sweeps the forum steps, the one with the burn scar on his wrist, and tell him it is from me.

I wanted to write something longer. I sat with the stylus for an hour, and the words that came out were lists: boots, lamp oil, a debt to Cassius at the baths. None of that is what you asked for. You asked whether I was well, and whether I still counted the days. I count them. I have scratched a stroke on the wall beside my bench for every one, and when that wall is full I will start on the lintel.

When you have read this, rub the wax smooth with the flat end of the stylus and use it for your accounts, as you always do. But leave the last line. I hope you think of me. I pressed it in deeper than the rest, so it will show even after the tablet has been wiped and written on a dozen times, a faint groove under the grey, and every time you tilt it to the lamp you will find it.