Black lettering tattoo on the side of a ribcage reading 'It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart', with a trident beside the lower lines.

Quote lettering with trident on ribs

Lettering · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A black ink tattoo on the side of the ribs shows a quote in a serif script set over several lines, reading 'It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart'. A trident motif sits to the left of the lower lines of text. The lettering is in solid black with soft grey tones, and the close framing shows the torso from the side.

Lettering Ribs Quote Trident Script Text

Find an artist for this

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

The storm had taken the east pier and half the herring fleet, and on the third morning Tamsin was still sitting on the slipway with a torn net across her knees. The men went past her with their hats pulled down. Nobody in Porthgarrow believed the net could be mended. It was cut in a hundred places, and the sea had kept the loose ends.

Keep reading

On the fourth day the Grey Man came up the harbour steps. He was as tall as a mast and wet to the bone, and he carried the three-pronged trident his grandfather had used to pin the tide. 'You have something of mine,' he said, tapping the net with the points. 'The sea took the boats as rent. The net is owed.'

Tamsin did not look up. 'Then you'll wait while I finish,' she said. 'It takes ten times as long to put a thing back together as it does to break it, and I'm only on the second knot.' She tied one, then another, pulling each one tight until it sang. The Grey Man sat on the bollard beside her, and the iron bent under his weight, and he watched her for the length of a tide.

When the sun was low she bit off the last thread and shook the net out over the water. It hung there, whole and dark, and a shoal of mackerel went through every mesh without tearing one. The Grey Man stood, took up his trident, and went down the steps without a word. Tamsin folded the net, walked home to her supper, and in the morning the fleet went out again with her knots holding every boat.