Two small black serif lettering tattoos showing the numerals 13 on the left ankle and VII on the right ankle, photographed from behind.

Numerals 13 and VII on both ankles

Lettering · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

The photo shows the backs of two lower legs and ankles, with the numeral 13 on the left and the Roman numerals VII on the right. Both are set in a thin black serif typeface with clean, solid lines and no shading. The pale skin, wooden floor and white wall behind keep the focus on the small tattoos.

Lettering Fine line Ankle Numeral Roman numeral Serif Number

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Now then, sit down and let the kettle go, because I'm not telling this twice, and nobody in this room gets up till the seventh tune. That's how it went at the Marine Ballroom the year they resprung the floor. The band had a fiddler called Teddy Crane who wrote his programme in Roman numerals, because he said figures looked like bus tickets.

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The programme ran to thirteen dances, and nobody liked the thirteenth. It was the slow foxtrot Teddy kept back until the lights were going up, and most couples were already at the coats. My Frank wouldn't touch it. He reckoned you didn't step on the thirteenth board, so he'd stand by the radiator with his cap in his hands until VII came round, because VII was the waltz they played when the boats came in on the evening tide.

Then one October the boats came in short. Two of the crew were missing off Kettle Bank, and the hall went quiet with the programme still in the air. Teddy didn't call the thirteenth. He lifted his bow and played VII, slow, and nobody could tell you afterwards who walked onto the floor first. Frank was in the middle of it before he knew he'd moved, and I swear the boards didn't creak once.

The floor's still there under the lino. Go and look by the stage if you want. There's a little chalked 13 nobody ever scrubbed out, and some nights I go and stand on that board, just to see if it holds.