Black fine line script reading not all those who wander are lost, with two small bird silhouettes, tattooed on the outer side of a bare foot on wet sand.

Quote and birds tattoo on the side of a foot

Lettering · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A bare foot rests on wet sand near shallow water, with the words "not all those who wander are lost" written in black script along the outer edge. Two small bird silhouettes sit at the start and near the middle of the line, one a swooping bird and one a bird in flight. The ink is solid black with fine, even linework, and the warm skin tone and pale blue water make the tattoo stand out against the soft, out of focus background.

Lettering Fine line Ankle Quote Script Bird Foot Sand Water

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the tide went out so far this morning that the mud shone like pewter, and I stood on it for an hour waiting for the ringing net to come up empty. It never did. Two swallows went through it instead, then a grey plover that Mrs Adeyemi swore was lost, though it had clearly been to Iceland and back before breakfast.

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You asked why I never came home after the survey job. The truth is the sea took hold of me the way a hook takes a mackerel, and I let it. Dad used to say every gull on this coast knows the way back to the harbour, and you only need to watch where they go. I thought he meant gulls.

Last week I found Mrs Adeyemi's old notebook in the hut, the one she kept from 1968 onwards. On the inside cover, in faded pencil, she had written not all those who wander are lost. Beneath it she'd drawn a bird with its wings folded, and beside that a second bird, mid-swoop, as if answering the first. I sat on the upturned crate for a long time with the kettle going cold.

So I'm writing from the hut with the stove lit and the window steamed up. Come down at the next spring tide. Bring your boots and that terrible jacket. I've kept you a place on the net, and there's a plover I want you to see before it goes. Your sister, Ruth. P.S. The plover came back.