Black and grey realism roses and a compass on a leg, with fine script lettering on the thigh, shown in a bath.

Roses, compass and script on legs

Realism · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

Two bare legs rest in a bath, with the left leg covered in shaded black and grey roses, a compass and a clock-like dial. The right thigh carries a long block of fine cursive script running from the upper leg down toward the knee. The shading is soft and detailed, and the composition is taken from above the legs against blue mosaic tiles.

Realism Lettering Thigh Calf Ankle Rose Compass Clock Script Bird

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The brass compass turned up in the lost property tin the week the Halcyon's band packed up for good, and nobody came asking for it. I kept it in my apron pocket through the Saturday tea dances, the needle swinging whenever the bass drum thumped. Above the bandstand the clock had stood at ten to eleven since Mr Pryce died, and the floor went on dancing under it regardless.

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On the third Saturday I found a folded sheet of dance-card paper tucked inside the compass case. Someone had copied out a love poem in fine cursive, every line slanting toward the same edge, as if written by a hand that had learnt its letters from ships' logs. There was no name, only a pencilled date from 1931 and the words meet me where the needle points. I asked old Dolly at the cloakroom hatch, and she said the man who used to sit by the fire exit had brought a compass to every dance for thirty years and never once danced.

That evening I climbed the ladder with a tin of oil and wound the clock, which took a long time because the spring was tired. The minute hand jerked, then ran. Through the window the car park lamps came on, and beyond them I could see the dark edge of the sea where the promenade ended.

The next Saturday I stood by the exit with the compass open in my palm. The needle settled, trembled, and pointed past the bandstand, through the double doors, straight toward the pier where the sailing club kept its dinghies.