Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Moon phases across the lower abdomen

Realism · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A row of seven moon phases, from thin crescents at each end to a full moon in the centre, runs horizontally across the lower abdomen above the waistband of trousers. The moons are rendered in black and grey with soft shading and fine surface detail, giving them a realistic, dimensional look. The photograph is black and white, framed tightly on the torso with the navel piercing and a hand at the left edge.

Realism Other Moon Moon phase Crescent moon Full moon

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The big top came down in Doncaster on Tuesday, and the ropes were in the lorry before the rain had properly started. You asked in your last letter whether Father's moon board survived the winter. It did. It's leaning against the generator in the horse box: seven discs of painted pine, the thinnest crescent at the left, the full moon in the middle, the waning crescent at the far right.

Every night for thirty years, before the trapeze, Father turned the board so the right phase faced the ring, and the band played the note that matched it. Mum swore he could tell the moon's age by the smell of the sawdust. A new crescent meant the Flying Pellegrinis went first; the full moon meant the old elephant came in slow and proud. Nobody in the stands knew why the lamps dimmed at the same point each night, and nobody asked.

Last Saturday we had eleven people in the seats. I stood in the wings with the board on my hip, and when I turned it to the full moon the drummer looked at me as though I'd lost my wits. We should have been on the waning crescent by then. I'd miscounted, or the moon had, I suppose. Nobody noticed but me.

I'm sending the board to you on the coach with a tin of Mum's shortbread, so mind the glue on the left disc, it's loose. When you hang it in your hall, start from the thin one and count with me. It's easier to watch the light go out when you have something to count from.

Love, Ada