Fine line black tattoo of a looped triquetra-style knot on the nape of a person's neck, with hair pulled to one side.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Looped knot on the nape of the neck

Fine line · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A small black tattoo of a three-lobed knot with an extra loop rising from the top sits centrally on the nape of the neck. The linework is thin and even, with no shading, and the design is set against smooth, lightly freckled skin. The photo is taken from behind, with the subject's hair pulled aside and a dim room visible in the background.

Fine line Geometric Neck Celtic knot Triquetra Knot Loop

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lift has been out since Tuesday, so you climb the fourteen flights with the shopping hooked on your wrists, counting landings under your breath the way Nan used to when she was teaching you knots. Seventh floor, the smell of someone's curry. Eighth, a pram folded against the wall like a bird with its wings shut. By the time you reach the top your breath is ragged and the bag handles have left red lines across your palms.

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Nan's knot was the three-lobed one she tied into the cord of her dressing gown, with an extra loop left standing at the top for finishing. Two ends going round together, she said, and a third to stop them wandering off. You laughed at her then. You are not laughing now, because the washing line on the balcony has snapped at one end and the sheet is flapping against the Doyles' satellite dish like a trapped gull.

Mrs Lusk from next door is out on her balcony in slippers, both hands gripping the rail. Her son has not rung since March. You take the loose cord from the bin bag and kneel on the cold concrete, working the loops the way Nan showed you: over, under, back through, the top loop drawn last so nothing can slide. The wind shoves at your shoulders. The knot holds.

When you stand up, Mrs Lusk is looking at the knot, not at you. She says her husband's mother tied knots like that, every single one of them. You don't correct her. You leave the top loop open, the way Nan always did, so there is a place left for someone else's hand to finish it.