Black and white photo of a raised hand showing a fine line Roman numeral lettering tattoo along the inner forearm near the wrist.

Roman numeral tattoo on the inner wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows a clenched hand raised against a grey stone tiled floor, with the inner forearm visible. A small black tattoo reads VIII:XVIII in Roman numerals, running along the forearm near the wrist. The linework is thin and even, rendered in solid black ink with no shading, and the image is entirely greyscale.

Fine line Lettering Forearm Roman numeral Numeral Text Hand

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The 8:18 went through this morning with every window shut against the rain, and I did what you told me to do, which was to look at the clock instead of the carriages. Mr Haddow has finally had the platform clock seen to. The man from Leeds came with a tin of tiny screws and a paper bag of jam tarts, and he took the face off in front of me, laying each numeral out on a cloth like a row of teeth. VIII on the left, XVIII on the right, with the colon between them that always looked to me like a pair of squinting eyes.

He asked whether I wanted the old hands kept. I said yes. They are bent at the tip from the winter you knocked the lamp pole into them, and I didn't want a clean pair pretending nothing happened.

The signal box is quiet now the goods line has gone. I still write up the train book at half past seven, every passing to the minute, though nobody reads it but the inspector, who visits twice a year and never sits down. Yesterday I wrote 8:18 in the margin, crossed it out, then wrote it again, because it is the only time on this line I am sure of.

Come home when the ship is paid off. The clock is running true now. I have made sure of it.

Your sister, Maud