Black ink tattoo on the side of the body showing a crescent moon with clouds, sun rays and a wave, in fine line and stippled dotwork.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Moon, sun and wave on the side

Dotwork · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

Three separate motifs sit on the skin: a crescent moon with curling clouds at upper left, a sun with radiating rays at upper right, and a large wave below them. The moon and wave use clean outlines with hatched and striped fills, while the sun's shaded edge is built from stippled dots. The piece is entirely black ink on pale skin, arranged in a loose triangle across the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ines,

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The boat did not come on Tuesday, so I have been watching the water instead, which is what you always said I would do if they left me on Scarrow with nothing to do. You were right. The moon has hung fat over the north headland all week, and the mist keeps rolling in under it like something dragged along on a string. Mam says the mist is the sea breathing out. I told her that is a story for children, and she laughed and put the kettle on.

Yesterday the big wave came in off the bar, the one Father used to call the grey horse. It stood up higher than the chapel roof and then folded over itself so neatly I thought someone had drawn it with a pen. I ran down to the slipway with the sun coming out behind me, and every ray struck the spray at once, so the whole bay caught fire for a moment. Then the wave fell and the water went flat and ordinary again, as if nothing had happened at all.

I have kept a wet stone from the slipway in my pocket since. It is the shape of a crescent, Ines, very nearly exactly, and when I hold it up against the sky the clouds seem to curl round it like the ends of a ribbon. I know you will say I am being soft. Come home at the next spring tide if you can. The boat is due Thursday, and the post with it.

Your sister, Nell

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