Black line drawing of an arched headstone with a small winged cherub at the top, the words EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL, AND NOTHING HURT in outlined capitals, and tufts of grass at the base.

Headstone with angel and quote

Lettering · Black and grey · Flash

A black ink line drawing of an arched headstone, with a small winged cherub flying near the top and tufts of grass at the base. The text EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL, AND NOTHING HURT is set in outlined, stacked capitals with a hand-drawn, slightly decorative feel. The design is drawn with even, medium-weight outlines on a plain light background, with no shading.

Lettering Angel Cherub Grass Quote Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Now then, sit yourself down by the range and mind the kettle, it spits. You want the story of the stone at the top of Hollin Row, the one with the little angel that looks like it's been dropped off a cart? That's the one. Old Tom Brannigan cut it in the spring of nineteen-twelve, the year after the Ashworth pit flooded, and he never once let a soul see the lettering until it was set.

Keep reading

The widow, Mrs Eliza Dunn, came up to the yard with a bit of paper folded small in her glove. Her boy Edwin was fourteen and had gone down the shaft as a trapper lad and not come back up. She wanted it cut: Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt. Tom read it twice and said, Missus, that's not true. And she said, I know it's not, Mr Brannigan, that's why I want it on his stone. Let the ones who walk past read it and think otherwise.

So he cut it. Eleven days with the chisel, letter by letter, and the tufts of grass at the foot done last, because his hands shook too much for the fine work. The angel he did in one afternoon, and he could never say why it came out so crooked, one wing bigger than the other, as if it were flying with a limp.

Years later a lad came up the hill asking after the stone. He'd worked the same seam. He stood reading it a long time, then said, It's a lie, isn't it? Tom said, Aye, it is. But it's the only sort a mother can afford to pay for. Then he handed the lad a broom and told him the path needed sweeping.