Black and grey realism lion head tattoo on a forearm, with an infinity symbol and Hebrew lettering below it.

Lion head and infinity symbol on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A shaded black and grey lion head sits on the inner forearm, with a detailed mane, soft fur texture and direct gaze. Below it, a grey infinity symbol with soft shading and a line of Hebrew script run down the arm. The photo is taken close up against a dark sleeve and grey floor, with the tattoos filling most of the frame.

Realism Lettering Forearm Lion Lion head Mane Infinity symbol

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The lamp room man says the Harrow seam is worked out, so the cage will take the last of the men down to Kellow in March. I told him you would be glad to hear it, though I know you will not say so. Mam has kept the lodge banner folded in the chest since the strike, and I took it out on Sunday to air. The lion is still looking straight ahead with his mane all teased out, the way Isaac Lazarus painted him before you were born.

Isaac is dead now, and his shop above the Co-op has a different name on the glass. Before he went he showed me how he drew the loop beside the lion, the sign for the endless rope that runs the cage up and down the shaft. He said a man who works a rope never truly leaves it. I thought that was a foolish thing to say until I watched Dad come up grey every evening for thirty years, the same loop of dust in his collar.

I went to the pit head this morning with the banner under my arm. The new engineer let me stand in the winding house while the drum turned slow, and I watched the rope coil and uncoil like a sum that never comes out. I thought of you out past the breakwater, and I wrote the word Isaac lettered under the lion on the back of this page. You will know the one. It means to remember, and it is the only Hebrew I have ever been able to spell.

Come home at Easter if the boat allows. The lion is yours to carry when we fold it again.

Love, Nan