Black serif lettering tattoo on a person's upper back reading what matters most is how well you walk through the fire, in a lettering style.

Quote tattoo across a shoulder blade

Lettering · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A photograph of a four-line quotation tattooed in black serif lettering across the upper back, near the shoulder blade. The text reads what matters most is how well you walk through the fire, with each line set slightly left of the one above. The ink is solid black with clean edges, and the skin around it is in soft focus against a plain background.

Lettering Back Quote Text Fire

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the roof of the Hollin Lane forge went up on Tuesday night, and by the time the engine came over from Wakefield your dad had already dragged the anvil out through the back door, two hundred pounds of iron, with his shirtsleeves smoking. Nobody tells you the anvil is the part people save. I have thought about that all week.

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You'll want to know why I'm writing instead of ringing. The insurance man came on Thursday with a clipboard and a face like a wet Sunday, and he asked me what we'd lost. I said the ledgers, the tongs, the apprentice's bicycle. He wrote them down. He didn't write down that Ray stood in the yard in his vest, watching the cinders climb, and said to the lad, "What matters most is how you walk through it, not whether it burns." Ray only says things like that when he's frightened, and you know that about him.

So on Friday the lad and I swept glass from the yard while Ray measured the chimney stack with a length of string. He won't touch the shop front until the flue is sound. Three weeks, he says, which means six. The bank has been reasonable, the neighbours have been kind, and Mrs Cawthorne left a tin of shortbread on the step without knocking, which I'm told is how Yorkshire says sorry.

Come on Sunday. Bring the good gloves you left in the cupboard, and come in by the front door so the lad sees you do it. Your dad will pretend he isn't pleased. Mind the puddles on the lane, they're full of black water and my patience is thin enough already.

Love, Mum