Black script tattoo of the word Hope on the inner wrist, with a pink awareness ribbon forming part of the letters.

Hope script with pink ribbon on wrist

Lettering · Other · Mixed · Photo

A close photograph of a black script tattoo spelling the word Hope across the inner wrist, with the capital H in a looped, flourished hand. A pink awareness ribbon is worked into the letters between the H and the o. The black linework is bold and smooth against lightly toned skin, and the background is softly out of focus.

Lettering Other Hope Script Ribbon Awareness ribbon Word

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The brush wanted to skip the loop on the H, and Dennis, who taught me the trade in a damp workshop behind the Harbour Arms, told me to stop fighting it. "Let the stroke go where the hand wants," he said, "then bring it back and tell it who's boss." It took me three goes on the scrap board before the flourish sat right, the tail curling under the letters like a fishing line left out to dry.

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The order came from the church hall committee in Margate: a board for the spring bric-a-brac sale, black on cream, and a pink ribbon to go between the H and the o because the ward had asked for it. Dennis wanted the ribbon in enamel, not paint, so it would stand up to salt wind. He mixed the pink himself, a shade lighter than he liked, and laughed when I asked why. "Nobody buys a cake from a sad sign," he said. His own hand was steady then, but he sat down twice while we worked, and I pretended not to notice.

He died in February, before the sale. I finished the board alone on a Tuesday with the workshop door propped open to the gulls. When the committee's youngest volunteer came to collect it, she traced the pink ribbon with one finger and asked what it was for. I said it meant you keep looking up, which is what Dennis used to say about bad weather and bad clients alike. She nodded as if that was an answer, and carried the board out into the wind, the wet paint catching the light on the H.