Black and grey tattoo of a fish outline pierced by a nail, sitting on the side of an ankle.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Nail and fish outline on an ankle

Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo shows a fish outline pierced diagonally by a nail, with the nail head at the upper left and its point at the lower left. The linework is bold and dark, with soft grey shading along the inside of the fish outline. The tattoo is photographed close up on the side of a bare ankle and foot against a blurred background.

Ankle Fish Nail Outline

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the wasps have got into the Bramley crates again and Mrs Hollis has threatened to dock us a shilling a bushel if another one bruises. I am writing this on the back of a seed merchant's invoice, perched on an upturned bucket at the end of row nine, so forgive the smudges.

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You will remember the nail Dad kept in the tin on the dresser. He called it the fish nail, though I never understood why until the week before he went. He had cut a scrap of oak in the shape of a fish and showed me the trick of driving a nail through it: lay the nail along the line of the grain, never across, or the wood splits and you start again. He made me do it eleven times. The twelfth held, and he tapped the head once with his thumb as if it had asked to be spoken to.

I found the offcut in his coat pocket when we cleared the cottage. The wood had gone grey and soft, and the nail had rusted into it so that I could not pull it free without cracking the oak. I did not try. I have it propped on the windowsill of the room above the cider press, and this morning the sun came through the gap and threw a thin dark fish across the floorboards.

Come up at the weekend. Bring your boots. Mrs Hollis says the Coxes are ready on Saturday, and I have promised her we will not bruise a single one.