Small black Roman numeral VIII tattoo on the side of a finger, with a gold jewelled ring on the next finger.

Roman numeral VIII on a finger

Fine line · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

Two hands are held close together, with a small tattoo of the Roman numeral VIII on the side of one finger. The lettering is thin, solid black ink with no shading. A gold ring set with small sparkling stones sits on the neighbouring finger, and the nails have a coral pink polish.

Fine line Lettering Hand Roman numeral

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the Marigold went out again on Tuesday with the wind backing north-east and Cal Fenwick swearing at the gearbox before we had cleared the harbour wall. You will want to know that the bell rang eight times at the end of the middle watch, the way Skipper insists, and I counted every stroke with my hand on the rail like a fool. Eight bells. Half past midnight on the dot, or so the old man says, though I have never seen a clock that agrees with him.

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The haul was thin. We shot the nets twice off the Dogger and brought up more weed than cod, and by the second dawn the gulls had stopped following us. Ada, the cook, blamed the moon, and she has blamed the moon for every bad week since I joined. I watched the water go from pewter to green and thought about the ring you left on the dresser, how it caught the lamp the night before I sailed, and how you laughed when I said it looked like a bramble of frost.

Then the net came up heavy on Wednesday morning, not with fish but with a brass compass case that somebody's grandfather must have lost overboard before the war. Skipper wiped the salt off with his sleeve and read the date engraved inside, and nobody said anything for a long while.

We are home Friday, if the wind holds. Keep the kettle on. I will be the one counting the hours to the harbour light.