Traditional flash design of a fanned hand of playing cards, including the ace of spades, above a scroll banner reading Born to Lose and Live to Win.

Playing cards and Born to Lose banner

Traditional · Colour · Flash

A fanned hand of playing cards shows the jack, king, ace and queen, with the ace of spades centred and ornate. A scrolled banner beneath reads Born to Lose and Live to Win. The bold outlines and shading are typical of traditional flash, with red, pink and tan tones and grey shading on the banner.

Traditional Playing card Spade King Queen Banner Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit closer, the lot of you, and mind that candle, it is the last one before Compline. Brother Anselm had the ace of spades face up on the refectory table and wore the grin of a man already counting coins he did not own. Beside it lay the knave with his drawn sword, the king in his crooked crown, the queen in her red gown, all fanned out like a peacock's tail. Brother Osric had two twos and a prayer.

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The stake sat between them: the abbey's cask of Michaelmas wine, meant for the bishop's visit and locked in the undercroft under Abbot Hugh's own seal. Osric swore on his dead mother's rosary that he would have it back in the cellar by matins. Anselm only laughed and said the cards did not care who had taken the vows, only who had the nerve to play the last card.

They played until the wax ran down to the candlestick. Osric lost the first hand, the second and the third, and by the fourth he had wagered the cellar key, his good sandals and the psalter his grandmother had sent him. Each time he drew, Anselm turned the ace over with one finger and tapped the black spade at its centre, as if it were a judge's seal.

At lauds the bell rang and the two of them came up the stairs blinking. The undercroft door stood open, the cask was dry, and on the refectory table sat the ace of spades beside a note in the abbot's careful hand. It read: Born to lose, Brother Osric, and I have the key you wagered. Live to win, Brother Anselm, if you can find a cart for the wine.