Black and grey fine line tattoo of media player controls, rewind, pause, play, fast forward and repeat, on the inner wrist.

Media player controls on the wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of the inner wrist and forearm, with a small tattoo of media player controls in a row. The row reads from left to right as rewind, pause, play, fast forward and a repeat or shuffle-style symbol, drawn as solid black shapes with clean edges. The dark background isolates the skin and the tattoo sits near the centre of the frame.

Fine line Geometric Forearm Icon Arrow

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Callum, The tape deck in the harbour office has eaten your mother's Sunday recording, so I have spent two evenings with a pencil and a torch, winding the ribbon back by hand. You would laugh. Mr Dunn keeps the machine on the shelf above the tide tables, and every crew that comes in gets their voices pressed onto tape for the wives and mothers waiting on the quay. He calls it the only honest box in Whitby.

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Last night I finally learned the buttons. Rewind comes first, two little arrows pointing back, as if the tape might be sorry for something. Then pause, two bars standing still. Play is a single triangle, sharp as a sail set for a good wind. Fast forward is the pair of triangles that hurry past anything dull. And at the far end sits the loop, two arrows chasing their own tails, the one that sends the reel round again without anyone asking.

Mr Dunn says most people press the loop once and then cry. Your mother pressed it eleven times on Sunday, once for every wave you named in your message, and then she made me promise not to tell you she had been counting.

So here is my request. When the Marigold docks, mail me a tape with your voice on it, and say something boring about the weather, so I can rewind it, pause on the gulls and play it through until the reel runs out. I will be at the counter with my thumb on the last button, waiting for you to start over.