Rose, anchor and star on a calf

Traditional · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

A side view of a woman's lower leg in a navy swimsuit and red heeled shoes, with a tattoo on the calf. The design shows a rose at the top, a nautical star to the left and an anchor with rope lower down, drawn in bold black outlines with grey shading. The plain pink backdrop keeps the focus on the tattoo and the leg.

Traditional Calf Rose Anchor Star Rope Nautical

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The frost had got into the troughs again by the time Dad came in from the top field, and he stood at the back door stamping his boots on the step like a man who had only just remembered he had feet. Mum said nothing. She put the kettle on and pushed the tin of cocoa across the table to him, which was how we knew the ewes had started lambing early and two of them had not made it.

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Uncle Ned had come back off the trawlers the winter I was nine, bringing a sea chest, a ship's clock that never kept time, and a coil of old manila he said he would not be parted from. He kept it in the barn, tarred and stiff, and on the coldest nights he sat on an upturned bucket and spliced it while the stove ticked. He never said what he was waiting for. He only said a rope should be ready before the weather decides for you.

The marsh flooded that January. Water came over the sea wall in the dark and lay silver across the lower meadow, and by morning the gate to the bottom field had gone. Ned walked the bank with a torch and the coil over his shoulder. He made one end fast to the fence post by the gap and paid out the rest hand over hand, until the sheep were on the high ground and the lambs were in the feed shed with the dog.

When the water went down in March, the rope was still there, green with weed and knotted tight to the post. Ned never untied it. He said a farm needed one thing that held without being asked, and then he went inside and asked Mum whether the kettle was on.