Two matching black ink tattoos on the lower legs, each showing an ornate shield motif with dotted detail, a hanging line and teardrop shapes, on a calf.

Matching ornate drop motifs on two calves

Calf · Black and grey · Photo

Two matching tattoos sit on the lower legs, each showing an ornate shield or heart-shaped motif with dotted and hatched detail above a small teardrop ring. A fine line hangs down from the motif to a second teardrop, with pointed leaf shapes at each end. The linework is solid black with no colour, and the photograph is cropped close, with a foot visible at the lower right.

Calf Shield Teardrop Leaves Ornament Matching pair

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, the porter at Carlisle has stopped asking whether I'm waiting for someone, so I assume you've got your ticket sorted and I'll see you Saturday on the down platform. I've wrapped the lamp in your old school jumper and it's rattling in the bag with the sandwiches. Mind the shade when you lift it out, it's cracked along one edge where the Odeon men dropped it.

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You'll remember the Lyric closed in March and the auctioneer let us take whatever we could carry before the van came. Dad's brass pendant lamps, the pair that hung either side of the proscenium, with the shields cut into their crowns and the little drops hanging underneath. He said we'd each have one. I took the left, you took the right, and we never once agreed on which was which.

I've been polishing mine every night at the kitchen table. The leaf tassels at the bottom were so black with age I thought they'd need stripping, but a bit of vinegar and an old toothbrush brought back the sharp points we used to trace on the programmes. The dotted rows along the crown still catch the light the way they did when we sat in the gods and waited for the house to dim.

The stationmaster is waving at me, so this is the last of it. When your train comes in, don't look for a sign. Look for the one swinging from my hand. Wait by the clock with the broken minute hand, and bring yours too, so we can hang them side by side in Mum's hall where the light from the landing can get at both. Love, Nell.