Two lines of black Roman numeral lettering in a serif font across the inner wrist of a hand held palm up.

Roman numerals on the inner wrist

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of two lines of Roman numerals tattooed across the inner wrist, with a small heart-like symbol separating the numerals on each line. The lettering is crisp, solid black serif type with even weight and clean edges. The hand is lit by warm indoor light against a plain, softly blurred background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Maggie,

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The weather has been foul since Tuesday and the Mary Ann has been trying to stand on her head off the Carrick Bank. We hauled twice in a gale and got enough cod to pay for the diesel and not a penny more, so Skipper says we will run north once the wind backs. I am writing this on the back of the tide tables because the paper in the wheelhouse is soaked through and the pencil keeps skipping.

You asked me last time what the numbers were, and I could not say, because the bosun would have had me scrubbing the rail till Christmas. But you keep secrets better than the gulls. The top line is where we were the night the engine seized and Ruddy Cooper swore we would drift onto the sands. Twenty-seven and sixty-six: the bearing of the church tower at Skerrow and the light on the headland. The bottom line is the night I got back to the quay alive, and you were standing there in your father's coat with the lamp held up. Fourteen and seventy, the seconds the light took to come round to us. Between them I drew a little heart, because I was daft and it was the only shape I could manage with a shaking hand.

The bosun has been good about it. He copied the figures onto the board in the wheelhouse so that if we ever go down, someone will know where we were and when we turned for home. He says it is sensible. I say it is sentimental, and he says a sentimental man is still a seaman, which I thought was a fine thing for a bosun to say.

We should be in on Friday if the wind holds off. Keep the kettle on and the coat warm. I will be the one who looks for the lamp first.

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