Bold black traditional-style tattoo of an open mouth with fangs and the word WHY, on a knee, with a small diamond and cherries nearby.

Open mouth with WHY on the knee

Traditional · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A large open mouth with rows of teeth and fangs is filled in solid black, with the word WHY set in the dark centre in lettering knocked out to skin. Above it, a small outlined diamond and script lettering sit on the leg, and cherries are outlined in black at the bottom of the frame. The ink is black only, with bold outlines and a plain brick wall behind the legs.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Our Kath,

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The lock at Tring has been stuck since the Coronation, and the keeper still hasn't forgiven me for the Sunday I came through with the bow ropes in a knot. I've got the boat tied up below the Bridge Inn now, where the towpath goes soft and the ducks have given up on being polite. Your letter came Thursday. I read it three times, once for the news, once for the bits you wrote in capitals, and once standing at the tiller while the kettle boiled over in the cabin.

You asked why I kept that picture of a mouth on the cabin hatch. Don't laugh. Old Pelham painted it the year he lost a tooth in a fight over a moored dinghy, and he said a boat should have something on it that answers back. Whenever some daft soul asked him a question he couldn't be bothered with, he'd open his jaws at them, all those white teeth and the two long ones at the front, and bark out the one word he'd cut into the dark middle of it. WHY. He never explained it. He just said you'd know when you needed it.

Last night a fella from the marina shouted across the water asking why I'd moored in his spot again. I opened my mouth to answer and found I had nothing, so I stood on the gunwale with my teeth bared like Pelham's picture. He laughed, shook his head and went home. I think that's about as much of an answer as anyone gets out here.

Come up in June if you can. Bring the good tea, not the biscuits Mum liked.

Your brother, Dennis

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