Black and white photo of two upper arms, each with a small black script tattoo reading 'au revoir' above the elbow, one on each arm.

Matching 'au revoir' script on two upper arms

Lettering · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

Two arms are shown side by side, each with the words 'au revoir' in small, fine black script above the elbow. The lettering is slightly brushed and uneven, with soft grey shading around the letters on the skin. The monochrome photograph has a shallow depth of field, with dark shirt sleeves at the edges and a blurred window behind.

Lettering Upper arm Script Matching tattoo Arm

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the tram stop at Hollin Road still has the bench we sat on the night the rain came sideways. I went back there on Tuesday with the brown paper parcel you left in my coat, the one with the wool gloves in it, and I sat for an hour waiting for the number nine that never comes now. The conductor says they stopped the route in March, which I should have known, because you always knew these things and I never did.

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Mrs Okafor from the flat above the chemist's asked after you. She thinks we're still sharing the kettle. I told her the kettle is in your old room now, rusting slightly at the spout, and she laughed the way she does when she doesn't believe you. I did not tell her that I bought two of the small cups from the market on Saturday and then could not decide which one was mine, so I drank from neither and let them go cold on the windowsill.

You wrote on my arm in biro the week before you left, in that careful slant of yours, and I had it done properly so it would not wash off in the bath. It is only two words. I thought they would be a comfort when you were gone, but mostly they are a question I keep asking the mirror in the mornings, and the mirror has never once answered.

I am sending this to the address you gave me in Lisbon, though I suspect it will sit in a drawer. If it comes back, I'll keep it with the gloves. If it doesn't, then you have it, and somewhere you are standing at a window with your sleeve pushed up, reading it the way I am writing it, slowly and without any hurry at all.