Traditional style tattoos of an open book with an eye and an anvil with nails, one on each hand.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Open book and anvil on hands

Traditional · Hand · Mixed · Photo

Two hands are shown side by side, each with a tattoo. The left hand has an open book with a red bookmark and a staring eye within yellow rays, while the right hand has a black anvil with two nails above red rays. The bold black outlines, flat fills and solid colour are typical of traditional linework, and the plain white shirt behind the hands keeps the focus on the tattoos.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Eli, the bay mare has thrown another shoe and Father's anvil has been cold since Tuesday, but I have made the nails you asked for. Three dozen, square-headed, quenched in the trough so they ring when they hit the stone. Mr Pardew from the chapel collected them himself and wouldn't say what they were for. He only tapped the book under his arm and said it had been opened in our lane and must now be shut.

Keep reading

The book came off the carrier's cart in March, its boards wrapped in oilcloth, and I read a page while the bellows rested. Every line was in a hand so small I had to hold it up to the forge glow. In the margin someone had drawn an eye with rays spilling out of it, like the sun when it looks at you through a hedge. Pardew says the eye is not God's, only watching. I told him God has no need of a bookmark, and the ribbon in this one is red as the coals.

Last night the anvil rang on its own, twice, sharp and clean, the way it does when the iron is right. I took the lantern out and found two nails standing upright in the horn, driven straight through the steel, still warm. Nobody in Harrow Hollow owns a hammer that heavy except me, and I was asleep upstairs.

I have not touched the book since. It sits on the shelf between the hymnal and Father's ledger with the eye turned to the wall. Come home at Michaelmas if you can, and bring your own key for the lodging. I think the anvil wants company, and if I am honest, so do I.

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