Black lettering reading Not all those who wander are lost, with two birds in flight, on a woman's upper back beside purple flower heads.

Quote and birds on upper back

Lettering · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A woman's upper back is shown from behind, with the face not visible. The tattoo reads "Not all those who wander are lost" in a typewriter-style serif font, with two bird silhouettes in flight on either side of the text. The ink is black, and the shot has a soft, muted tone with purple allium-style flowers at the left edge.

Lettering Back Bird Lettering Flower Upper back

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The typewriter on the fortune booth has stuck again, and you are the one who has to coax it loose before the Saturday crowd finds the field gate. Nobody else on the Halloran and Vale fair knows its temper. The lowercase e sticks, the carriage drags to the left, and the ribbon has been inked so many times it smells of pear drops. Your nan set it up on a trestle in Hull forty years ago, and it has typed the same kind of card for every customer since: a strip of cream stock, a few lines, and a price pencilled underneath.

Keep reading

The card you are wrestling with is for a boy from the big dodgems, the one who keeps asking whether you are going on the road with the fair in October. You type the words slowly with two forefingers, the way she taught you, watching each letter strike the paper. Not all those who wander are lost. Your hands are unsteady because you have not decided yet whether you are the one wandering or the one left behind on the field.

Outside, the rooks lift off the pavilion roof all at once, the way they do before rain, and wheel over the dismantled waltzer. You pull the card free and hold it to the light. The e has come out fat and black as a bead, and the line sits a little crooked, but it reads true. You fold it twice, slide it into your pocket, and walk out to meet the first lorry before the gate opens, the rooks still turning above the grass as if they had always known the way.