Black lettering tattoo on the inner wrist reading Macbeth above I.iv.50-51, in a clean serif-style font.

Macbeth and line reference on a wrist

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Two lines of black serif-style text sit on the inner wrist, with the word Macbeth above a citation-style reference, I.iv.50-51. The lettering is solid black with even, crisp edges and no shading or added colour. The photograph is taken close up and straight on, with the wrist filling the left and centre of the frame against a blurred background.

Lettering Forearm Text Script

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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

Dear Priya,

Keep reading

Don't let the new lad cut the lamp cue on Thursday. I know the book says blackout at the bell, but Mr Hollis always wanted the stage left lantern to hang on for one more breath, and I never had the heart to tell him the sightline was wrong. You'll find his pencil all over the Macbeth prompt copy, in the margin beside the first act. He wrote the reference out in full every single night, as if the company might forget where the line lived.

Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires. Forty years I've heard that couplet whispered in the wings by people trying not to be heard, and I still can't say what Hollis meant by underlining it twice. Something about wanting the dark to keep a secret for you, I suppose. He was a man who loved a secret more than a trick.

On the last night of the run, the house went up and he was standing where he always stood, in the prompt corner with his cardigan buttoned wrong. He handed me the book without a word. Then he reached past my shoulder and switched off the lantern himself, a full second early, and said, "There. Let them have their dark."

I've enclosed the book. Keep the pencil. Keep the lantern on its cue.

Love, Maureen