Black fine line tattoo of a heartbeat trace with the script words guard your, and proverbs 4:23 in a typewriter style below, on skin.

Heartbeat line with script and Proverbs 4:23

Fine line · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A thin black heartbeat trace runs across the image, joining cursive script reading guard your with a sharp spike at its right end. Below, the words proverbs 4:23 are set in a clean, slightly serif-like sans typeface with solid black lettering. The tattoo is shown in black ink on skin with soft, even lighting and a plain background.

Fine line Lettering Other Heartbeat Ecg line Script Lettering Text

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The Bramley trees dropped half their crop in Tuesday's storm, so I've been up the ladder since six with Dilys holding the basket and complaining about her knees. You asked me to write properly instead of texting, so here is a proper letter, with ink smudged where my thumb rests on the page.

Your grandad's cardiology strip came back from Hereford yesterday. The nurse folded the long curl of paper into an envelope, and I pinned it to the corkboard by the back door, between the spray schedule and the photo of you on the tractor. Every spike is a beat. The doctor ringed one dip in biro and said it was nothing to fret over, but I've stood under that board every morning since with my tea going cold, counting.

Your grandmother used to keep Proverbs 4:23 written on the lid of the apple crate: keep thy heart with all diligence. She meant the orchard, I think, the way you keep a graft wrapped and watered in March. I used to take it for a sermon. Now I think it's plain advice for people too stubborn to sit down.

So sit down, love. Come home for the picking. Bring the girl from Leeds if she likes cider. The wasps are dreadful this year, but the light on the rows at seven is worth a sting.

Love, Mum