Black and grey fine line mermaid tail tattoo with shaded scales and flowing fin on the inner forearm, against a cream blind.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Mermaid tail on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A mermaid tail extends along the inner forearm towards the wrist, with the fish-scale body shaded in dense, fine hatching. The fin is rendered in soft, layered grey strokes that fade towards the tip. The plain cream blind behind the arm keeps the focus on the tattoo.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The net came up heavy off the Skerry last Tuesday, and I thought we had hauled a sack of weed until Tam shouted from the bow. There was a tail in the mesh. Not a fish's tail, though it had scales, fine as thumbnails and dark as wet slate, shading down into a fin that had been torn and then mended by something patient. It was longer than my arm. The fin was grey at the root and went to nothing at the tips, as if someone had brushed it with ash.

Tam wanted to cut it free and sell the story at the inn in Anstruther. I said no. We worked the mesh loose with our knives, one knot at a time, and the whole while the thing lay on the deck flicking water at my boots like a cat that won't be stroked. When the last strand came away it slid over the gunwale without a splash, and I swear the sea took a breath.

I did not sleep. I kept thinking of Mam's rule about never naming a thing you cannot carry home, so I have named nothing. I only know that the weed in the bottom of the boat smelled sweet, and that the net has a tear in it now shaped like a crescent moon.

Keep the lamp lit at the window. I will be home by the spring tide, and I will bring you the knot I kept, which has a little silver in it that is not mine.

Your loving brother, Robbie

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