Small tattoo of a shaded grey matchstick with an orange flame inside a red circle, on the side of a ribcage.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Matchstick with orange flame on the ribs

Ribs · Mixed · Photo

A small matchstick with a shaded grey stick and a head at the top, set in front of an orange-red circle that holds the flame. The stick has soft grey shading, while the flame and circle are solid orange-red with a slight halo of redness on the skin around them. The tattoo sits centrally on the side of the ribs, with a teal lace top visible at the top of the frame.

Ribs Flame Circle

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Old Hanna kept the galley fire on the herring boat Mary Gale for thirty winters, and she never let a match go to waste. Her matches came in a tin with a faded sun printed on the lid, and she counted them the way the skipper counted the salt beef, one by one and never aloud.

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One February, somewhere north of the Dogger Bank, the stove went out in a sudden gust through the hatch. The cabin boy, Tom, had been spending matches on his pipe when he thought no one was watching, and now the bread would not rise and the men would be sour by morning. He came to her crying, and she opened the tin and showed him the last match lying alone at the bottom.

She struck it on the side of the box in the dark. The flame stood up round and orange, like a small sun balanced on a stick. She held it under the kindling and said, "Light is only worth what it warms, so warm something." The fire took, the kettle sang, and the boy wept again, this time for the joy of it. When the flame reached her fingers she let it burn down to a black stub and gave it to him to keep. In the morning the galley was warm, the bread had risen, and Tom still had the burnt match folded in his pocket.