Colour traditional tattoo of an ornate key wrapped in a red-outlined ribbon reading ALOHOMORA, with four sparkle stars, on an upper arm.

Key and Alohomora banner on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A traditional-style tattoo shows an ornate key with a decorative bow and shaft, wrapped by a ribbon banner that reads ALOHOMORA, with four four-pointed sparkle stars around it. Bold black outlines define the key, banner and stars, with shading in grey and dark red. Red, yellow and gold tones dominate the colour palette against the pale skin, and the design sits centrally in the frame.

Traditional Upper arm Key Ribbon Banner Star Sparkle Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The key to the feed store hung on a nail behind the kitchen door for forty years, and nobody on the farm had ever really needed it, because my uncle Desmond usually coaxed the padlock open with a bent wire and a bit of swearing. When the snow came early that November and the lock froze solid, he pressed the brass key into my glove and sent me down the lane, telling me not to lose it in the drifts.

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The store smelled of meal and diesel. I stood in the blue dark with my breath clouding in front of me and felt a fool. Then I remembered the library book Mum had made me return, the one about the boy wizard and the word that opened any door. I said it under my breath, half joking, the way you'd say bless you after a sneeze. "Alohomora." The shackle gave a click like a knuckle cracking and sprang free into my palm. I stared at it, then at the key, then burst out laughing so loudly a ewe answered from the far shed.

Back in the kitchen, Desmond turned the key over in his fingers and said the padlock had been loose since Tuesday. He'd only wanted me out of the house, sulking over the wireless all week, and he'd known a walk in the frost would do more good than any cup of tea. He didn't say anything else about it, just hung the key back on its nail.

On the way home the sky had cleared, and the stars were so thick over the top field they looked spilled. I took the key out of my pocket and held it up against them. At the yard gate I said the word once more, quietly, mostly to myself. The gate, which had never once been locked, swung open with a sigh, and I went in to the warm.