Black traditional-style tattoos on an upper arm, with a block-lettered quote reading NO BULLSHIT DO REAL HAVE PASSION STAY THIRSTY, an anatomical heart, a sunburst and a banner.

Quote, anatomical heart and banner on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows the outer upper arm of a person in a white t-shirt sleeve, with long light hair falling beside it. The tattoos include a block-lettered quote in four lines, an anatomical heart, a sunburst above a banner, and leaf shapes, all in solid black outline with some grey shading. The ink is black and grey, and the tattoos fill the arm from the elbow area up towards the sleeve.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

Keep reading

The sea has been flat as a tabletop since Tuesday, and the cook has taken to chalking things on the galley slate. Yesterday it was four lines in capitals: NO BULLSHIT, DO REAL, HAVE PASSION, STAY THIRSTY. Nobody asked him to. Ferris says he copied it off a poster in a bar in Valparaiso, but I think he wrote it for himself, the way a man says a prayer he is too proud to kneel for.

Old Tobin, who has sailed these waters longer than the charts have been trusted, showed me his forearm in the dog watch. There is a heart on it drawn like a map of the Mersey, all veins and shadow, and above a blank banner he has a sunburst with the rays coming up thin and sharp. The banner says nothing yet. He told me he kept it empty until he met a man worth writing down. I asked who he was waiting for. He tapped the sunburst with one thick finger and said the light comes up whether you name it or not, and then he went below before I could make a joke of it.

We raised the Holmes light at first bell this morning and the whole crew came up on deck for no reason except that it was land. Tobin went down the gangway in his good coat with a tin of ink money in one pocket and the cook's old chalk in the other. Ferris swears he means to have the banner filled in before the tide turns. I told him the ink would hold better if he let the man choose his own letters.

I'll post this from the dock, so it may beat me home. Keep the kettle on the back ring and mind the step by the scullery. Tell Father the fish were small but the company was good.

Your loving brother, Sam

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