Traditional style colour tattoo of a yellow measuring tape tied in a bow, with black outlines, on the inner forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Measuring tape bow on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A yellow measuring tape is tied into a bow, with its ends hanging down in two loops and metal tips shown in grey. Bold black outlines define the shapes, and the tape has printed numbers along its edges. The flat yellow fill and simple shading sit centred on the forearm against a blurred background of grass and pavement.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The bell over the door went as Nell was pinning the last hem, and she didn't look up. She had a mouthful of pins and a wedding dress across her knees, and the tape was already round the waist, reading thirty-one, then thirty-one and a half, because the bride had eaten two pies since Tuesday and said so without a blush.

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'Sorry, Nell. Is this the blazer place?' It was Maud Tennant, who had sat behind her in Form 4B and had not been inside the shop since they were fourteen. She held out a carrier bag. Inside, folded with a school tie on top, was a navy blazer with a crest that had faded to the colour of weak tea. 'Twenty-five years,' Maud said. 'We're doing the reunion at the Crown and everyone wants to look like they did.'

Nell took the blazer and spread it on the cutting table. The shoulders were fine. The chest was fine, if you didn't breathe. She unrolled the old tape from the bottom drawer, the one with the brass tips worn bright, and laid it across the sleeve. Fourteen years old, she had been measured against this same tape by a woman who called her 'Nellie' and wrote the number on a card without looking at her face. The card was still in the drawer, under the pattern weights.

She took the spare tape from the hook and tied it in a bow around Maud's bag, the loops hanging long, the ends neatly tucked. 'Come back Friday,' she said. 'I'll let it out an inch. Tell them it was the tailoring that made the difference.'

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