Line drawing flash of a pizza slice with pepperoni and mushrooms, with banners reading I WILL NEVER and BREAK YOUR HEART, in a traditional style.

Pizza slice with banner lettering

Traditional · Black and grey · Flash

A hand-inked line drawing of a pizza slice with pepperoni, mushrooms and a crust, set between two ribbon banners. The top banner reads I WILL NEVER and the bottom reads BREAK YOUR HEART, with the words in capitals. Fine hatching and cross-hatching shade the pepperoni and crust on a sepia, paper-textured background.

Traditional Pizza Pizza slice Pepperoni Mushroom Banner Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ottavia, the oven has finally cooled enough for me to write without scorching the paper, so forgive the smell of charred cheese on every line. Brother Anselm says the Prior will not permit another attempt until the chimney is swept, which leaves me an afternoon to be sentimental about Tuesday.

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We had taken the good flour from the cellar and the tin of tomatoes kept back for the feast of Saint Benedict. Columba sliced the mushrooms paper thin and laid the pepperoni out in rows like the psalters in the scriptorium, while I stood at the bench pressing the dough flat with my palm. I told the dough, quietly, that I would never break its heart by stretching it too far. It seemed a kind promise. The dough did not believe me and tore straight down the middle.

The Prior arrived just as Columba slid the peel under the pie. He looked at the slice on the stone, then at me, and asked whether this was a penance or a sacrament. Columba said it was a little of both. We ate it standing in the kitchen with the door open onto the cloister, the crust blistered and the pepperoni gone glossy, and nobody spoke until the last crumb had gone.

I saved one slice for you, wrapped in a clean cloth and tucked behind the bread crock. It will be cold by the time the carrier comes, and the cheese will have set into a little sealed ridge along the edge. Eat it anyway. Tell me whether the promise still holds, and whether you can forgive me the torn crust.

Yours in tomato and penance, Brother Matthew