Black and grey realistic portrait tattoo of a man in a pirate-style headwrap, shown on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic pirate portrait on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A realistic portrait of a man wearing a pirate-style headwrap, with long hair falling beside his face, a moustache and goatee, and a fine blade-like shape at the edge. The shading is smooth and detailed, with soft greys in the skin and darker tones in the fabric and hair. The portrait fills the frame of the arm, with the lower edge fading into a blue sleeve.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the lamp went out again on Tuesday, and I have decided it is the picture's fault. You remember the charcoal likeness the salvage men left behind after the Marigold went onto the Skerry? A captain in a knotted headwrap, the cloth falling in grey ribbons, a blade leaning at the edge of the frame as if he had only just set it down. Mrs Pargeter's nephew wanted two shillings for it and I gave him three to be rid of him.

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I hung it in the lamp room, facing the stairs, so I could see it while I trimmed the wick. For a week nothing happened. Then each night I climbed up at the turn of the tide and found the frame a little further round, until on Tuesday it faced the wall, and the blade had slipped from the corner onto the sill. There was salt on the glass that had not been there the night before, and the lamp would not catch no matter how I coaxed it.

I have hung it back the right way round now, and I have written the names of the drowned crew on the back in pencil, all eleven, so he has something to read besides the sea. Tonight I will light it early. If he has been looking for a way home, he can see the beam from the water and steer for the rocks we marked for him. I am tired of him turning his face to the wall.

Your brother, Alfie

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