Black and white photo of two clenched fists with traditional-style LOVECATS lettering tattooed across the fingers and a small star above the knuckles on the right hand.

LOVECATS lettering across fingers

Lettering · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

Two clenched fists are shown in front of a lace top and a textured knitted cardigan, with the word LOVECATS tattooed in bold capitals across the finger segments. A small star design sits across the top of the fingers on the right hand, and the blocky, outlined letterforms have a classic, old-school character. The black and grey tones and shallow focus keep attention on the lettering.

Lettering Traditional Hand Lettering Star Fist

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The boarding house on Marine Terrace smells of vinegar and wet wool, and the landlady, Mrs Dunn, decides within a minute of meeting you that you will do. Room four has the sea view if you lean out of the window far enough, breakfast is at eight, and you are not to touch the cats. There are three of them, all named after things that float, and they walk the banisters as though they pay rent.

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Room four belonged to a tattooist called Ray Sowerby, who drank in the Lifeboat and left behind a biscuit tin of needles, a stencil book with its corners chewed, and a notice pinned inside the wardrobe door that reads PAID UP TO MARCH. Under it someone has written in pencil, in capitals that lean like a dinghy in a crosswind, LOVECATS, then crossed it out, then written it again.

On the third night Mrs Dunn tells you the story over a cup of stewed tea. Ray did his first ever piece on her nephew's knuckles, one letter per finger, and ran out of room before the last one, so he put a star where the sky should have been and charged the boy half price for the cheek of it. She laughs until she has to wipe her eyes. Admiral, the big ginger tom, climbs onto your bed and kneads the blanket until it fits him.

On the last morning you post the tin of needles to Ray's sister in Ramsgate with a note saying he's paid up. Then you carry the stencil book down to the front, where the three cats are already waiting on the rail above the sea, watching the tide come in as though it is their job and they intend to do it properly.