Single-line drawing of four rolling waves above the handwritten phrase go with the flow, shown as a fine line design on a plain light background.

Line drawing of waves with go with the flow text

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A simple black line drawing shows four curling waves in a row, with the handwritten phrase go with the flow beneath them. The linework is thin and even, with no shading, and the lettering is small and sits centred under the waves. The plain pale background leaves the design isolated, with generous space around it.

Fine line Wave Handwriting Text

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Your father drew waves the way other men swore, quickly and without looking back. I found the first one on the back of the tide table in the kitchen, four humps in carpenter's pencil, and beneath it the words go with the flow, in his cramped hand. You were six and frightened of the harbour wall, so he taught you on the back step with a bucket of seawater, showing how the line rises, curls and lets go.

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The winter the Mary Ellen went out past the Brisons and did not come back, you stopped going near the water at all. You sat on the sea wall with your arms locked round your knees while the other boys dived off the slip. I didn't tell you to swim. I went down to the boatshed, found the stub of pencil he had left on the workbench, and drew the four waves again on the wall of your room, big enough to lie under.

In March you asked what the words meant. I said it meant you did not have to fight the tide to get home. You thought about that for a long time, then went down the slip in your vest and let the water take you out a little way and bring you back, the way the line on the wall came back to where it started.