Two photos of fine line black script lettering: the words amica mea on the upper back near the neck, and soror mea on the inner forearm.

Script lettering on upper back and forearm

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The top photo shows the small words amica mea in thin, cursive black script on the upper back, close to the neck. The lower photo shows the longer phrase soror mea in slightly heavier black script across the inner forearm. Both tattoos use single-needle style linework on pale skin, with plain backgrounds and no colour.

Fine line Lettering Back Forearm Script Latin phrase Handwriting Word

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mother has bolted the chandlery again, so I am writing this on the back of Tobiah's bill of lading by the light of the eel-smoker's fire, where the bailiff's clerks cannot see the pen. The ink is the last of the walnut stuff, thin as river mist, but it will serve.

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You will remember how we agreed the words in the spring, when the lord of Carrow Dene raised the toll on lamp oil and we two were the only girls in Hollin Reach who could read the tally sticks. Amica mea for when the sluice gates are open and the road is clear. Soror mea for when a man in grey is asking after the Dunmore boat. I thought it a child's game then. You laughed and said children were the only ones the lord had never thought to watch.

Now the second word has come. Tobiah's boy ran it to me this morning with his cap crushed in his fist, and I read it twice before I understood. The grey men have reached the weir. They are not looking for your father's boat, Maren. They are looking for you, because you saw the toll book open in the lord's hall the day you carried the wicks up.

So I am sending the rowing skiff upstream with its lantern unlit, and these words go with it. Keep to the reeds. Do not wait for dawn. When you reach the far bank, press your palm flat on the wet stones and count to nine, as we did when we were small. I will count with you from here, and when I reach nine I will burn this letter so there is nothing left to read.