Black and grey fine script tattoo reading lux in tenebris along the forearm, shown in a black and white photograph.

Lux in tenebris script on a forearm

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A black ink tattoo in a thin, handwritten script spells the Latin phrase lux in tenebris along the forearm. The linework is even and crisp, with no shading, and the lettering runs diagonally up the arm. The photograph is black and white and shows the arm resting on a patterned fabric.

Lettering Fine line Forearm Script Latin phrase Text

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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

Right, sit down, the lot of you, and stop pretending you remember the Latin. I'll give it you the way Mr Hollis gave it us, because he's the only reason half of you passed anything.

Keep reading

It was the winter of 1961, the year the coal ran short and the council switched off the electric in the top corridor of Ashgrove Grammar for the whole of a Tuesday. Hollis came in with a stub of candle in a jam jar, set it on the desk, and wrote on the blackboard by its light. Lux in tenebris. He didn't translate. He just tapped the chalk against the board and said, "Any of you who can read that in the dark can go home early." Nobody moved. Then Pauline Dacre, who sat at the back and didn't care for anyone, said, "Light in darkness, sir," and he said, "Well, that's three words you've not copied off the bus driver."

Ashgrove Grammar burned down the year after, so the board went to the tip and the phrase went everywhere else. Some of you have it on your bookshelves. Some of you have it in your heads at three in the morning when the boiler knocks.

Here's what I think he meant, and you can argue with me over the custard. The dark isn't the thing that takes the light away. The light is the thing you have to keep writing, in your own hand, one letter at a time, until your eyes adjust.