Two matching shaded tattoos of the ILY sign language hand with a white heart in the palm, placed on the inner wrists.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Matching ILY hand tattoos with a heart

Other · Black and grey · Photo

Two near-identical tattoos of the ILY hand sign from British Sign Language and ASL, one on each wrist, show the thumb, index finger and little finger extended. Each hand has outlined linework with soft grey shading, and a white heart sits in the palm, left unshaded. The tattoos are black and grey, with a slightly warmer tone on the left one, and the close framing centres the two wrists side by side.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Priya,

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You were right about the hall. Somebody had hung the same blue bunting from our leavers' dinner, and it sagged in the same place over the tea urn. I stood under it for ten minutes before I could make myself cross the floor. Then Gary Dunn saw me and made the shape with his hand, thumb, first finger and little finger up, and I laughed so hard I had to sit down on a radiator.

We didn't talk much in the bus shelter that last year, did we? We talked with our hands. Mrs Okafor taught us the sign in the lunchtime club, the one that means I love you, and we used it for everything: the bus coming, the bell going, the Head turning round in assembly. You said it was rude to use it on anyone who wasn't a friend, and I said that was the whole point.

I brought the photo of my wrist, the one from the parlour in Stockport. The heart in the palm is still white, just as Lou the artist promised, and the blue has softened to a warmer grey where the sun catches it on the allotment. I thought I'd look silly showing it off at forty-three. Instead half the room had one, or wanted one, and Mrs Okafor cried into her Bakewell tart.

Write back soon. Bring your own hand. I want to see whether yours has faded the same way.

Love always, Jo

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