Flash sheet of nine jellyfish drawings in grey pencil shading, with small dots scattered between them, shown without a body placement.

Jellyfish flash sheet in grey pencil

Black and grey · Flash

A sheet of nine jellyfish drawings in varied poses, some with trailing tentacles and frilled bells. The linework is fine and layered, with soft pencil shading that gives the bells volume and depth. The sheet is set on a pale grey background, with small dots scattered between the creatures to suggest water.

Jellyfish Sea creature Tentacle Ocean Flash sheet

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The rain has been coming sideways across the Harbour Market since Tuesday, and the awning over my stall has given up pretending it keeps anything dry. I sold nine umbrellas yesterday to people who looked at the sky as if it had personally insulted them. Nobody wants the jellies on the back table. Mrs Pellow asked whether they were dangerous, and I said they were only drawings, and drawings can't sting.

Still, I've been working on them. The ones you brought up from the slipway in that bucket, the ones that looked like bells someone had forgotten to ring. I put them on the paper the way you showed me, pencil first, shading the domes so they seem to fill with water. The frilled ones I gave long trailing arms, like they're combing the dark. Between them I scattered small dots, which Dad said were bubbles and I said were just where I'd lifted the pencil.

Last night, with the lamp off, I listened to the drip from the gutter keep time with the arms of the nearest one, and I thought of you out past the breakwater with nets full of nothing but these. Come home before the spring tides. The stall needs minding, and I've kept your share of the takings in the tin under the cash box, which is still dry, which is more than I can say for anything else.

Love, Ruth