Realistic black and grey humpback whale tattoo across the upper back and shoulder blade of a person with their head turned away.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Humpback whale on a upper back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A large humpback whale swims diagonally across the upper back, with its tail fin raised near the neck and its head resting towards the shoulder. The shading is soft and detailed, with fine throat grooves, a textured body and a small eye, all in black and grey ink. The whale fills most of the frame against plain pale skin and a light background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Mam, the kettle has gone again in the galley, so this is written by candle and a bulb that flickers every time the ship rolls. We are four days out of Stornoway with nothing but grey water and gulls, and Captain Ruaridh swears he has seen a spout off the port bow twice now. Nobody believes him but me.

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This afternoon it came true. I was on the forecastle with Tomas, mending net, when the sea simply opened beside us. There was no spout first, only a long dark back rising slow as a hill, then the tail lifting clean out of the water and hanging there, streaming, before it slid under without a sound. Tomas said nothing for a full minute. Then he took his cap off, which I have never seen him do for anything, not even his brother's funeral.

The whale came up again further off, and again after that, and each time the fluke dipped and rose like someone waving a grey handkerchief at us. I kept wanting to fetch the others, but I didn't. I think we were all a bit ashamed to be so glad. You would have laughed at me crying at the rail, pretending it was the wind.

I am sending this with the mail boat from Lerwick, so it will be a while reaching you. Tell Dad I finally saw the thing he always talked about, and that the sea is bigger than any of his stories. Write back and tell me how the hens are getting on, and whether the big grey cat has finally forgiven me for leaving.

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