Fine line black tattoo of a heartbeat ECG trace running into the script words Just live, placed across the upper chest.

Heartbeat line with Just live on the chest

Fine line · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a black heartbeat trace with two tall spikes and smaller peaks, which flows straight into the cursive script words Just live. The linework is thin and even, and the ink is solid black with no colour. The photo is taken close up on pale skin across the upper chest, with the design centred in the frame.

Fine line Lettering Chest Heartbeat Ecg line Script Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The machine arrived at Kirkby Cottage Hospital in a crate stamped with American lettering, and Dr Mallory would not let anyone touch it until he had read the instructions twice. I was only the switchboard girl, but on wet afternoons nobody rang the wards, so I sat by the window and watched the nib scratch its slow line across the paper.

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The first real trace came in March, from Arthur Pell, who had gone under a tram of slate on the Hollin road. Mallory strapped wires to his chest and wrists, and the nib began to move. The line rose in tall, sharp spikes with smaller humps between them, like hills seen from a train window. Mallory leant over it with his lip caught between his teeth, and I could tell from the way he breathed that the drum of the old clock in the corridor was not keeping time with the paper.

The line went flat for a breath, then two tall spikes lifted and fell, and Mallory let out a long breath of his own. 'Keep him warm,' he told the nurse, and then, without looking up, 'Mark the time.' I tore off the length that showed the change and pinned it to the board beside the telephone. Under the last peak I wrote in pencil the only thing that came to me, which was what Mrs Pell had called through the ambulance window as it pulled away: just live.

Arthur went home on the Friday. The strip hung on that board for years afterwards, curling at the edges, the pencil going silver, and whenever the telephone rang I looked at those two spikes running on into the words. A machine could tell you a heart was still going, I thought, but it could never tell you what to do with it.