Fine line black tattoo of the words love yourself in cursive script beside an arrow with a heart cutout on the shaft, on the upper arm.

Love yourself script and arrow

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows the words love yourself written vertically in flowing cursive script, placed alongside a slim arrow. The arrow has a feathered fletching at the base, a heart cut out of the shaft and a small detailed head near the top. The linework is clean and thin, in black ink only, against slightly soft skin tones with a plain, uncluttered background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marguerite, the post office on Calder Street finally gave me back your parcel, two months late and smelling of the sea. Inside was the arrow you carved for me the summer we were nineteen, the one with the heart cut through its shaft so the light could pass. You wrote on the card that it would find me when I needed it. I laughed at that then, standing on the harbour wall with the gulls shrieking over the chip shop.

Keep reading

I have carried it since, through three flats and a job I hated, and I have not once thought of it as a sign. Today a boy at the bus stop asked me what the words beside my arm meant, and I found I could not explain it without sounding soft. So I told him it was a reminder from an old friend, which is true enough. He nodded as if that settled everything, and the 14 came, and I left him to his own sums.

I am writing to say I have been unkind to myself for a long time, and I am tired of it. The arrow has no target, only a feathered end and a long way to fly. If you are still by the harbour in October, I will bring a flask and you can tell me what you meant by finding me.

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