Close photo of a bold abstract swoosh tattoo in red and dark blue ink on a lower back, with a dark top above it.

Red and blue swoosh tattoo on lower back

Back · Mixed · Photo

Two dark blue-grey curved strokes cross a single red curved stroke, forming an abstract swoosh shape. The lines are solid fills with crisp, tapered edges and no visible shading. The tattoo sits across smooth skin in a dim, warm-toned photo, with dark clothing above it.

Back Abstract Curved line Stripe

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The landlady at Marrow Court Guest House will not let you pin the kite to the banisters, so you carry it up three flights in your arms like a sleeping animal. Mrs Ansell has opinions about salt and sand on her stair carpet. Outside, the wind has been coming off the harbour since Tuesday, and the sea is the colour of wet slate, streaked where the tide runs.

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Your cousin Dilys sent you here to mend nets for the boats, not to fly anything. But the kite is the one thing you brought from home, a diamond of red oilcloth with two dark cords crossing at the spine, and on the third morning the sky clears so suddenly you can't refuse it. You walk the cliff path below the coastguard hut. A boy from the chandlery holds the reel while you tie the last knot in a hurry.

It climbs in a long curve, red first, then the grey cord above it, and for a minute it looks as if the sea has lifted a single stroke of paint into the air and the dark lines are trying to pin it down. Then a gust takes it sideways. The knot gives, and the red sail goes out over the edge, turns once, and drops into the surf beneath the rocks.

You do not go after it. You sit at the kitchen table in Marrow Court while Mrs Ansell sets a bowl of cockles in front of you without a word. Next morning there is a new cord on the windowsill, bound with fresh twine and tied with a knot she has clearly tested. Down on the shingle, the tide has left the red oilcloth folded at the high-water mark, salt-stiff and still whole. You crouch beside it and wait for the water to decide whether you can have it back.