Colourful Japanese-style koi fish design in orange and gold on a deep blue background, framed by teal wave and cloud swirls.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Koi fish with swirling waves

Japanese · Colour · Flash

A large koi fish swims diagonally across the frame, with orange and gold scales, black-outlined fins and a patterned head. Teal swirling waves and cloud shapes fill the background around it, and a small red fish appears in the top right corner. The bold outlines and saturated colour sit on a flat blue ground.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Frances,

Keep reading

The pond is still there, though they have fenced it off with green mesh and a laminated sign about liability. You will remember the big orange one we called Mr Hollis, after the headmaster, because he cruised the surface with the same disapproving stare. Someone at the reunion said koi can outlive a whole decade of school reports, and we laughed, but I went round the back of the sports hall on my own after the buffet to check.

He was there, gold and bronze under the teal scrolls the art department painted on the wall years ago, the waves curling up like something from a Japanese print. His fins had gone ragged at the edges, but he still turned slowly, as if the water had been arranged for him. Beside the lilies a smaller red fish flicked past, quick as a dropped pen, and I thought of the note we posted into the pond in Year Nine, the one with our three names and a promise to meet at the bottom of the hill at forty.

We are not at the bottom of the hill, Frances, but I climbed it anyway. I did not tell Tom about the note. I think it belongs to the water now, and the water is keeping it well.

Love, Ruth

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