Colour tattoo of a red thread spool with a needle and looped thread on the upper arm, in a traditional style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Red thread spool and needle on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A red thread spool sits at the centre of the design, with grey wisps behind it and a sewing needle at the right trailing a thread that forms a small heart loop. Dotted lines radiate around the spool and needle. The bold black outlines and soft grey shading contrast with the red fill of the spool, and the design is framed against bare skin on the upper arm.

Traditional Upper arm Spool Thread Needle Heart Dot

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz,

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The red spool has been sitting on the windowsill of the lost property office at Hollinbridge since Tuesday, when the porter found it wedged under bench six with a needle still threaded through the wool. Nobody has claimed it. Mr Ocampo says I may keep it if I can prove it is mine, so I am proving it in writing, which is the only way I ever prove anything.

The needle is the one from Gran's tin. You took it to Leeds in March and said you would mend your coat lining on the platform, and I told you a platform was no place for a needle. Then the 6.40 came early and you were gone with the thread still in your pocket. The little heart I stitched into the hem of your school jumper when you were six still shows where the thread loops back on itself.

Yesterday a girl with a rucksack asked whether anyone had handed in a spool of cotton. I told her I had. She didn't ask why I was standing at the counter with my hand on a bit of thread, and I didn't tell her. I wound a length onto a fresh card from the shop, the way Gran taught us, and left the loose end hanging over the edge so the next person could find it.

Come home for the Sunday trains, or send word. The kettle is on the hook where it always was, and the lunch will keep if you're late. Bring the coat. I have the needle ready.