Two hands held together showing fine line tattoos on the back of the hand: a red queen with crown, Q and heart on one, and a black king with crown, skull, K and spade on the other.

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Matching queen and king playing card hand tattoos

Fine line · Hand · Mixed · Photo

Two hands are held together, each with a small tattoo on the back of the hand. The left hand has red linework showing a crown, a stylised Q and a heart, while the right hand has black and grey designs of a crown with a small skull above it, a K and a spade. The simple lines are set against plain skin and a wooden floor, with the hands fitted together as the central composition.

Fine line Hand Crown Queen King Heart Spade Skull Playing card

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ivo,

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The Cobweb Club shut its doors at four this morning and I still have ink on my fingers from the cards. Mr Haskett has been dealing the same deck since before you left, the red queen with the cracked corner and the black king whose spade looks like it was cut by a child. He says the king is lucky because of the notch in the spade, and anyone who draws it wins a round. Last night a drunk architect drew it three times running and cried into his whisky.

I kept thinking about you through the small hours, the way you used to shuffle with one hand and talk with the other until the cards fell out of your fingers. You always said a pair of cards was only a promise that somebody else would turn up. I thought that was daft at the time.

Walking home along the canal at half past four, I passed a couple sitting on the wall outside the chip shop, their hands knotted together between them like two cards held face down. Neither of them spoke. The woman's ring finger was bare and the man was watching the water as if it owed him money. Nobody needed to tell me what the cards meant.

So I'm writing to say the deck is yours if you want it back. The crown on the queen has come unstuck from its corner, and I've kept the king for you, the one with the notch. Come home when the boat docks. I'll deal you in.

Nell