Black ink tattoo of the words So it goes. with a small fine line starburst below it, on the back of a woman's neck.

Quote and starburst at the nape of the neck

Lettering · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows the back of a person's neck and upper back, with dark hair pinned up and a dark knit top. The tattoo reads So it goes. in a serif typeface, with a small starburst made of thin radiating lines beneath it. The ink is solid black on a neutral skin tone, and the background shows wooden kitchen cabinets, with the tattoo centred in the frame.

Lettering Fine line Neck Quote Text Starburst Asterisk

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mind the third step, it rocks, same as your uncle did at your age. Sit on the bench where the sun's still lying, and don't pull at that stem, the last of the asters are going over and they've earned their rest. Your grandfather set the first row along the wall the spring your mother was born. Nine plants from a cutting he got off a nurseryman in Hexham who swore they'd never flower in a north-facing bed.

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They flowered. Every September, purple as a bruised plum, lifting their heads over the wall like they were nosy. Then one October the frost came three weeks early and blackened the whole row overnight. He stood at that window with his tea going cold and said, well, so it goes, and went out in his slippers to cut them down.

Next spring there were eleven seedlings in the gravel where the old roots had been, and nobody had sown a thing. The wind had carried them over from the hedge. Your grandfather never did explain that to his satisfaction, and I stopped trying.

Now, you want to know why I keep saying it. Here, hold out your hand. Feel that? Dry seed heads, light as dust. Scatter them by the gate, and don't ask me where they'll come up. So it goes.