Watercolour-style humpback whale tattoo in pink, green and blue on the upper back, with a pale blue wash suggesting water above it.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Humpback whale on upper back

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A humpback whale rises diagonally across the upper back, with its long pectoral fin and tail fluke visible. The linework is soft and broken, and the body is shaded in pink, green and brown washes, with a pale blue wash behind it suggesting the surface of the water. The tattoo is centred between the shoulder blades, with the subject set against plain skin and black bra straps.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The snow has drifted up to the top bar of the far gate, so the ewes are bunched in the lee of the barn and I have broken the ice on the trough twice this morning with the axe. The dog won't go past the yard anymore. I think he has decided the world ends at the cattle grid.

Mrs Gunn from the shop says a humpback came into the bay on Tuesday, the first she has seen since her father's time. Pink where the low sun caught its back, she said, and green-grey underneath like weed on a stone. I walked down to the shore with the dog and saw nothing but a dark hump, then a plume of white breath, then the fluke lifting slow as a church door swinging shut. I stood there until my feet went numb.

Dad always said the sea takes what it likes and gives back only what it's tired of. Perhaps it has sent this one back to see whether we'd still be looking.

Come home in March if the boats are still in. Bring me a tin of the good tea and tell me what you saw past the Cape, and don't leave out the bits you think I won't believe.

Your loving sister, Ailsa

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