Traditional-style mermaid, anchor, stars and flowers design printed on a black t-shirt, shown flat with no body placement.

Mermaid and anchor design on a black t-shirt

Traditional · Colour · Flash

A red-haired mermaid with a green scaled tail sits in front of a pale moon-like circle, framed by flowers and five white stars. Below her, a green and coral anchor is entwined with leaves, and a cartoon fish and a crab sit to either side. Bold dark outlines and flat colour fills in red, green, peach and white are printed on a black t-shirt.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

Keep reading

The relief boat didn't come on Tuesday, so the gulls have had the last of the bread and I have had to swallow my pride with the tinned peas. Mr Pascoe from the mainland says the swell is too heavy for landing until the weekend. I have lit the lamp every night regardless, the way you showed me, and wound the clockwork at four so the beam keeps turning.

Something came in on the tide last night, caught on the rocks below the west slip. It was an anchor, black with weed, and wrapped round its arm was a scrap of sailcloth with a painted girl on it, red hair going everywhere, a tail the green of bottle glass. Her face was so cheerful I nearly laughed, which I suppose is what the sea wanted. I hung her on the nail by the stove to dry. The crab that lives in the crack by the slip has been staring at her ever since, and a fish with a nervous face has been circling the rainwater bucket as though it has lost something.

I don't know who painted her. Perhaps a sailor with a long wait ahead of him, or a girl who wanted someone to come home. I have decided the pale moon behind her is the one we see from the gallery on clear nights, the one you used to say was keeping watch over us both.

Come home when you can. The stars on the cloth have stayed bright through the damp, and I have started counting them each night before the light goes round.

Love, Ellen

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