Two arms crossed over each other, each with the word 'always' in black fine line cursive on the inner forearm.

Matching 'always' script on two forearms

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Two arms cross diagonally against a plain grey backdrop, each bearing the word 'always' written in thin black cursive script. The linework is clean and even with no shading, and the lettering sits near the wrist on each arm. The image is in greyscale tones with soft, even lighting.

Fine line Lettering Forearm Always Word 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

Sit nearer the fire, for the wind up here takes half of every word and gives none back. You want the story of Dunmore Pass, and of the two carriers who met in the middle of it, which is where all proper stories should meet.

Keep reading

Their names were Ada Corrie and Tomas Hale, and for forty years they hauled salt and wool between the valley towns, Ada climbing from the east and Tomas coming down from the west. The path at the summit was too narrow for two laden mules to pass, so every spring they stopped at the old cairn and did it the only way it could be done. They stood arm over arm, each holding the other's wrist, while the packs swung across between them. Ada carried a burnt stick for marking sheep, and while they waited for the wind to drop she wrote on the cairn stones. Always, she wrote, and Tomas would add nothing, only nod, because the word was enough.

One spring Tomas did not come down. Ada climbed to the cairn regardless and found his stick lying in the grass beside a fresh scratch on the stone, the same word, cut so deep the rain could not take it. She carried a pot of marking ochre up the following spring and wrote it again beside his. Then, because the wind was bitter and she was stubborn, she dipped the stick and pressed the word to the inside of her own wrist, where the pulse was. The mules knew the path well enough by then to walk past the cairn without stopping.

Some say the stone still shows both words in low light. I have crossed that pass sixty times and never looked, because I have always found it easier to keep walking.