Black and grey tattoo of a face with an open mouth on a calf, with the script words Run n tell that above and Homeboy below.

Portrait and script on a lower leg

Lettering · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey portrait of a face with a wide open mouth sits in the centre of the design, drawn with bold solid shapes and minimal shading. Handwritten script reads Run n tell that above the portrait and Homeboy below it. The tattoo is shown on skin with a light, plain backdrop and no colour ink.

Lettering Calf Portrait Face Script Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Don't look at me like that, I'm telling you what I saw. Quarter past three, third floor, and the lift doors slide open on a skinny lad in a hospital gown, arms out wide like he's about to take off. He's towing his drip stand behind him like a lame dog on a lead. Mrs Okafor from the night desk is standing there with her tea, and she says, Where do you think you're going at this hour? He looks her dead in the eye and says, Run n tell that, and he's round the corner before she's put her cup down.

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I got the job of fetching him back, which is how I ended up in the linen cupboard at half three with a grown porter on his knees among the pillowcases. The lad had a jam sandwich in one fist and a biro in the other, and he was drawing on the back of a menu. He'd done a face, mouth wide open, all shouting and no teeth. When I asked him what the big idea was, he just pointed the biro at the door and said the whole ward would hear about it in the morning.

Turns out the old fella in bed six had been snoring so loud the curtains shook, and the lad reckoned somebody ought to write it up for the records. Mrs Okafor did not see the funny side. She marched us both back to bed, and the sandwich went in the bin with the menu folded inside it. I found the drawing later, smoothed flat under the sluice sink, and I've kept it in my coat pocket ever since.

So when people ask me what happens on nights, I tell them somebody always wants to be the one who gets to say it. Most of the time it's a kid with a biro, and most of the time the ward forgets by breakfast. Not me. I still have the menu, and it still shouts.