Black and grey realism sleeve tattoo on a man's arm showing a sailing ship, a compass rose and an anchor, with the words Love, friends and family.

Sailing ship, compass and anchor sleeve

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A large realistic sleeve covers the upper arm and forearm of a man in a maroon t-shirt, with a three-masted sailing ship at the top, a shaded compass rose in the middle and an anchor with rope lower down. The linework is fine and the shading is smooth, giving the ship sails and rigging depth and a soft, misty background. The design is entirely black and grey, and the words Love, friends and family are written in a serif script between the compass and the ship.

Realism Upper arm Forearm Sailing ship Ship Compass Compass rose Anchor Rope Rigging Love Friend Family Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The fog had sat on the Skerry for three days when the barque came round the point, her sails hanging like wet washing and her rigging catching the lamp's sweep one rope at a time. I stood at the gallery rail with the brass telescope Mr Pell had left me and counted masts. Three. Nobody on her deck was looking at the rocks. They were looking at the compass rose painted on the wheelhouse door, scrubbed pale with sand, and at the anchor chain laid out in coils like sleeping snakes.

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Ada had told me, when I first came out here, that a ship in fog steers by the people she hopes to get back to, not by the stars. I thought it was the sort of thing sweethearts say. Then the mate hailed us through a voice cracked with salt, asking for the Harbour Light, and held up a board for the signal lamp. Someone had burnt the words into it in a careful serif hand: LOVE, FRIENDS, FAMILY.

I lit the lamp twice more so they could find the gap in the reef, and kept the bell going until dawn. When the sun broke through the mist the barque lay in the lee, small and grey, her chain taut. A boat came ashore with one oarsman in oilskins, who tied up, climbed the steps and asked me, without any greeting, whether the cottage below the cliff still kept its lamp lit.

I told him it did. He nodded, looked out at the water for a long while, and said that was all he had needed to hear.