Realistic black and grey zipper tattoo running down the side of the ribs, with a split in the skin and red scratch marks beside it.

Realistic zipper tattoo across the ribs

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A realistic zipper is tattooed vertically along the side of a torso, with its teeth and metal pull shaded in grey to look three-dimensional. Thin red scratch-like lines run alongside the zipper, suggesting skin parting around it. The photograph is taken in a bright indoor studio, with the tattoo filling most of the frame.

Realism Ribs Skin Metal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, the green parka came back in this morning, the one with the brass pull that Mr Gorse has carried in twice since Easter, and I nearly sent him away again. The chain had parted down the middle like a seam that had given up, and the slider sat crooked at the top where someone had hauled it too hard. I took it to the bench under the lamp before the shop lights were on, while Dad's kettle was still ticking in the back room.

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Under the loupe the trouble wasn't the teeth at all. A sliver of red thread had wound itself round the slider's bottom stop, the sort that comes out of an old tin of sewing odds and ends, and every time the pull moved it tightened the knot a little more. I picked it free with the fine tweezers, one fibre at a time, and then worked the teeth back into line, pinching each pair closed with the pliers until the chain ran straight again.

On the underside of the pull, half worn away, there was a stamp: BRAMLEY SHEFFIELD, and beneath it a tiny crown. Dad's stamp, from the years he did the heavy coats for the wholesalers. I had forgotten the brass was his. I sat with it in my palm for a while, listening to the first bus go past the window.

When I finally drew the zip up, it went in one long run, teeth meeting as if they had only been waiting for permission. Mr Gorse will collect it on Friday. I've put a note in the pocket asking him to bring the kettle round. Love, Nell.